Blog #480: Why Halloween Costumes Aren't for Everyone?

When it comes to Halloween, most people associate two major factors with it: candy and costumes. If you have both candy and costumes mixed with Halloween, your fall holiday is complete.

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But for some people, one of the biggest sensory challenges that befalls around Halloween is the fact that people are wearing costumes and thus, making the individual seem overstimulated and not recognizing the person underneath the costume. Now, for someone who did fan conventions for many years and encountered so many people cosplaying as their favorite characters, you might be wondering why am I bringing this up now?

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The truth is that even though I interacted with people cosplaying as their favorite characters, I did feel a sense of uncomfortable nature, even though they were just costumes. For people with sensory processing disorder like myself, Halloween costumes are as much of a sensory challenge in terms of sight than wearing them.

The truth of the matter is that if someone freaks out over someone wearing a costume, others may say that the individual is being a baby and ruining the whole experience for everyone. Take for example Margaret Hamilton, the actress who played the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), for example. For many years after playing her signature role, most children would often be freaked out on account that they were really in the presence of the Wicked Witch of the West, largely because of their active imaginations thinking that the characters were alive.

To this end, Margaret decided to show children that the costume she had on was just for pretend and that the Wicked Witch of the West was just a character and not real. Thus, in 1975, she appeared on “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” to demonstrate just that.

Margaret Hamilton on “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” (1975)

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But getting back to wearing costumes on Halloween, it’s always a good idea to ensure the individual that wearing a Halloween costume is optional and that there are other ways to celebrate Halloween that don’t involve wearing costumes or going trick-or-treating. There are some people who will want to say to the sensory friendly individual to just “suck it up” and deal with people wearing costumes.

The only thing I can say to those naysayers is that you need to be patient with a sensory friendly individual who will have a hard time with both seeing and/or wearing Halloween costumes. There is a matter of not just being sensory friendly, but also being sensory processing aware of the individual. There may be individuals who have a hard time processing what is in front of them and that’s okay because it’s who they are. Some people may enjoy wearing costumes and some may not.

So that’s why if you see someone not wearing a costume and they are out trick-or-treating or trunk-or-treating, just remember that they are not ruining the holiday, they are just trying to be comfortable as they are.

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Catch you all later!!