Oh Lordy.
Why do I do this? ย Why do I subject you to such things?
In kindergarten… way back in the mid eighties… I was a child bride for Halloween.
Actually… I was a child… and I dressed up as a bride. ย That makes things less creepy.
I don’t know whose idea this whole bride thing was, certainly not mine. ย I was probably just stoked about wearing lipstick and a head band.
Want more? ย Surely you must.
Little Bo Peep with her favorite stuffed animal and her princess sister.
Child bride with clown sister and toothpaste sister.
Toothpaste. ย It only makes sense that the tallest child be the toothpaste.
This is my Uncle Dan. ย He’s dressed up as a hunk.
That’s my veiled head in the right corner. I want candy.
I had a Cleopatra phase. ย I’m mostly stoked that I could get the pose right.
I blame my mother for the aggressive eyeshadow.
This is bad.
Smack dab in the middle of my frizzy haired hat phase I decided to be a playing card for Halloween. ย A playing card with a playing card hat. ย I’m sure I busted out the craft box and the glue gun to bring that little gem to life. ย Lord help me.
I’m not sure if the card is better or worse than being a teenage Juggalette.
I’m glad these were the only photos I could find. ย I distinctly remember an awkward Raggedy Anne phase as well.
Ps. ย If you know me in real life… this set of pictures IS NOT open for discussion or ridicule. ย Zip it.
89 Responses
All I can say that these are great costumes and I don’t know how your mom did all this with her working…….
Out of curiosity, how did you photograph your old photos? I’ve tried several times to a big glossy shiny mess! I’d appreciate any help! Thanks!
Here in Italy we don’t celebrate Halloween. Thanks for sharing a bit of a different life. (Not too different, really. I used to dress up as a bride even if without Halloween.)
These are fun.
Loved your costumes back then, and loved you showed them to your Peeps.
Love you Uncle Dan
Hahahaha!
I was Cleopatra a few times also! I had the thick blue eye shadow and everything!
“Iโm not sure if the card is better or worse than being a teenage Juggalette.”
Hahahahahaha. Hoo. That was rich. You would have been much worse off had you dressed like Tila Tequila instead.
hahahaha i was a bride for halloween when i was 4!!
These pictures are AWESOME :D
Joy, you have not changed a BIT!
ok 2 things
a) is that boy in the photo of you as Cleo dressed as a cheerleader?
b) one year i was either a bum lady or the worlds oldest (and ugliest) hooker. my mom made me up with tons of make-up threw some old lady clothes on my and then shoved some clothes up by shirt to make a hump (on the back). But homemade costumes are the best my sister was a martian which used about a roll of foil. AHH goodtimes goodtimes
I distinctly recall having a Raggedy Anne phase myself, so I will definitely not point fingers. Besides, did *you* ever dress up as Harpo Marx for Halloween? Neither did I. >.>
Thanks for sharing your fab fashion sense for a giggle. :)
no 1* hottie Uncle you have
no2* i was also a child bride…(i blame my mom)
no 3* you rock Joy!!!!!!
I remember when we used to put a lot of thought and creativity into our costumes. It was great fun for weeks before Halloween!
Awwww, I think we would have been friends…Little Bo Peep is killing me! I have an old picture of me as a “ballerina princess fairy” and my sister as Max Headroom (the coca cola dude). Hellooo, 80s!
I love your pictures and your website so much. It seriously warms up my day. Here’s to many more Halloweens and cheesy pictures in between! : )
I was a child bride,too,in 3rd grade. I have no idea why the heck I chose that! Its totally not my style. I guess that’s before I had a style.
you are so adorable in those shots!
This is me!
Hysterical pictures and commentary-I needed a good laugh!
I love that toothpaste costume your sister had-so original! And you made a cute child bride!
Ask a little girl what is more important, the dress or the groom. It’s always the dress until about seven, and then they think about it.
I love that you’re wearing all white in all of these! Apparently you have a thing for white Halloween costumes :)
Don’t feel bad. I had to be a bride for a ballet recital. The guy who was my “groom” I’m pretty sure was gay (even though I was only maybe nine at the time). He had to lift me and twirl me around to music that included the lyrics, “The girl that I marry will have to be as soft and pink as a nursery.” Just thinking about it gives me the shivers.
Thanks for the trip down Halloween memory lane.
I remember my Raggedy Ann year too. Hope you had a better costume this year!
Look at that smile on the child bride!! So pretty!! These are some fun pictures! I wish Halloween was part of my childhood!! Not in my country! Brazil.
Well at least you have fond memories. Happy Holloween!
Oh my gosh!!! We have a picture of my sister and one of her friends on Halloween, and her friend was a tube of Crest toothpaste!!!!! Who decides they want their Halloween costume to be dentist approved?
i went through a cleopatra phase too. i had golden snake armbands with red jewel eyes…oh, yes.
Joy, you are my hero!
hehe – hunkle dan.
Haha! Can’t wait to use that one =D
i was also a child bride!!!! like for halloween, i mean. and i have always thought it was super creepy.
Can I have a recipe for Uncle Dan–what a cutie!
Halloween is our most hallowed of holidays. There is no Fall Festival in our house. ;)
Love the pictures. You’re still the gorgeous girl you were back then. What a cutie!
The toothpaste. L.O.V.E. I.T. It made my day, honestly! It’s the cutest costume I have ever seen!
omg-my favorite costume has to be that toothpaste one. I know my costume for next year!! lol
* make-UP (sorry for the mistake)
You were (are! ) so pretty! Dressed as a princess, my dear! Yeah children make is always make you look like a Chrismas tree, but so nice souvenirs!
Joy,
These pictures are so cute! I just wanted to say I love your blog so much :) Made the potato frittata this morning for brunch with guests and it was yummy ^_^ Thanks for always making me smile!
Don’t knock your pics! They bring back wonderful memories & are adorably cute!! And don’t forget to keep taking them, even if you are ‘all grown up’ now! Your future kids will love it! :-)
p.s….Please post a current pic of Uncle Dan ;->
Ohhh, you guys were sooOOO CUTE!! Yeah, my Mom would make us up in costumes she “created,” too…
Haven’t any pics, though. They were all lost years ago… bummer! But at least we have our memories! I was always something “glamourous” like Cleopatra; one year Mom fashioned me a beautiful East Indian Sari, with all sorts of jeweled bracelets, a tiara, etc. Most often I went as an American Indian “Princess,”
since I had all the “requisites” (being NA, plus the long braided hair, feathers, etc.). Except that sometimes I wanted to be an Indian WARRIOR (never got to be one, I wonder why not?). LOL!!
Actually, I HATED Halloween from about the time I hit 12 or 13. I hated it because it was my birthday, and I would have to spend hours sitting at the door handing out treats to OTHER KIDS, before us kids were allowed out to go out (grouped together for safety) to do our own “trick or treating.” I resented giving OUT stuff for MY birthday, as well as not getting the best stuff like the earlier kids had!! Also we had a much shorter time to get our “treating” done.
You are such a cutie patootie (to borrow Rosie O’Donnell’s words)
I think you look very cute! We did not really celebrate Halloween in Europe up until recently, so it is fun to see how you grew up and had a lot of fun wearing all kinds of costumes! :)
I was an ace of hearts one year! LOVE it. Happy Halloween!!
Hilarious! These pictures remind me of my own photo collection that I keep hidden… too much evidence of wild costumes – like the year I went as a turtle for Halloween. Seriously. Who does that.
The thing that is so weird about your pictures is that I DRESSED UP LIKE A TUBE OF TOOTHPASTE in the mid-eighties (except I was a tube of Aim)….what are the odds…
Man, Halloween in the 80’s was the best, wasn’t it? And Uncle Dan — dayum! ;)
I was little bo peep one year too! I don’t remember what else, maybe something original like a 50’s girl. Love that you have these pictures handy. I have no clue where my past halloween photos are.
How wonderful! I love it when you share cute/embarrassing photos, Joy! :)
Too cute!! The best days are when we are kids and to think we are in such a hurry to grow up.
what great pictures!! i bet they bring back a lot memories…..hopefully good ones!
Thanks for sharing these! You were so cute :-) Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween!
Love the photos.
You’re still just as cute!
I ADORE these pictures. Thank you so much for sharing. They are too great. Oh, the costumes of childhood… Happy Halloween!
Aaaw, I wish we celebrated halloween properly in Holland!
Great pics. I am soooo glad I have no idea where the pics of me are!
Those are AWESOME. I love old Halloween pictures. I just posted some of me being “Jem” about 6 years in a row. I wish I could go as her now.
Oh, Joy, thank you for this- I’m not doing anything for Halloween this year so I wasn’t in the spirit, but his brought back such great memories. And truly, I’m so relieved that I wasn’t the only 10-year old who voluntarily selected to dress up as a bride! Ha! I’m pretty sure I just thought it looked like a princess… Anyhow, just wanted to let you know that you’ve made my day.
These pictures are great! Most of the time for halloween I was something scary, so almost every year there is a picture of me doing some ridiculous pose trying to look “evil”….
Is it at all possible that Cleopatra coincided with The Bangles “Walk Like An Egyptian” craze? I thought of that song immediately when I saw that picture and was transported back to middle school, a really bad perm that made me look like a poodle, and clothing choices better left unsaid. Oh yeah, I was rockin’.
Seriously, these pics are fabulous! I was never one to dress up for Halloween, though I do remember one year when I was living in San Jose (before we moved to Tucson), where I allowed my mother to make me a She-Ra costume. It was super awesome at the time, but when I found a picture of it years later (Polaroid, of course), I realized that I resembled a satellite dish more than an all-powerful female warrior from another planet thanks to an inordinate amount of foil on my clothes and sword. Yeah…
thanks for sharing………brought smiles as i remember my own halloween days. i think you and your family look absolutely precious.
Awww! how cute. You are so lucky to have those pictures :) I have none of me- (thanks mom! :))
Amazing! What are you being this year for Halloween?
Brilliant! I’ve always wanted to go all-out for Halloween in this kinda way, but living in England prevents me from doing this. The norm for a night out on Halloween over here is a group of guys dressed as bloody school girls, or teenage girls dressed as slutty Disney characters/nurses/animals. :(
aw thanks for sharing, it’s a good thing i’m not sure where my old halloween pictures are:-)
Woah, hello Uncle Dan!
Would it be socially unacceptable for me to tell you that I think your Uncle Dan is really hot?
Hello?! A playing card is an awesome costume! Alice in Wonderland! It’s great! I love it.
Oh, and by the way: I once was a street sign. (I’m a real costume hater, so I put on a shirt with a street sign printed on it, wore grey trousers and stood still.)
I have three sisters and believe me most of the costumes we came up with were very strange. Yours were great. Don’t you just love Halloween. Looking at your pictures just brought back some wonderful memories of my sisters on this great hallows eve. Thanks Joy and have a great Halloween. Paulette
The child bride is great!
You were so adorable! Your uncle definitely was a hunk. And in the Bo-Peep picture, is your sister… floating?? She seems to be suspended in mid-air! Magic?
ohh pity we don t celebrate Halloween here i would have loved dressing up like that. you were adorable :)
HAHAHAHAHAHHA.
…wow. Lovin’ you as a child bride. :)
You have the best costumes ever! =)
I’m freaking out here… my sister and I went as tubes of Crest one year AND playing cards another year (in wigs no less)! I am just so happy to know that we weren’t the only dorky kids out there dressed like that! :) Your Bo Peep pic is adorable!
That is so adorable…
Awkward to look back on I’m sure (and really, aren’t most pictures from ones childhood? haha), but all incredibly cute costumes. I always look forward to family photo sharing time at Joy the Baker :).
What in the hell is going on with Lauren’s face in the bottom picture?
she’s being the devil. duh!
haha awesome pictures! these type of pictures are the best – the ones you can look back on and laugh about for years!
I love the bride with the red lippy photo, you are so cute in that! Adorable:)
Haha, what a great set of photos. I know somewhere lurking in space is a photo of me dressed up as the brightest clown anyone has ever seen. Looking back, this may have been my mother’s method for not losing me.
Awww!! You were adorable, really! I was Cleopatra in 5th grade and had my WHOLE family braid my hair into skinny braids. I have more hair than a lion. Good times.
Looks like you used Halloween as an excuse to wear makeup :)
Rachell – It took your WHOLE family to braid your hair??? I agree, Halloween is a great excuse to wear heavy makeup and act sillyyyyyyyyy!!!
Oh, and eat lots of candy, of the Chocolate variety!
HEE HEE!!! :)