The pumpkins are out, the candy is bought and it’s time to go trick-or-treating – almost. Halloween, the day of the dress-up, falls on Sunday and UAE’s parents and kids are ready for some fun. Since Sunday is a school night, kick things off early with a colorful weekend. (For a full list of things to do, see: https://gn24.ae/c86a849faab8000.)
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Indian expat Archana Mundhra wanted to help her son, Nevaan, realise his dream of participating in Halloween, but came across a stumbling block – his grandmothers. The resourceful mum wasn’t going to let that come in her way. “I choose an ancient Greek to keep my kids’ grannies, who don't believe in evil costumes, happy. Also to keep my kid happy since he’d like to be part of this celebration. The trick was to strike balance between the traditional Indian thoughts and Western culture and celebrations,” she explains.
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Clementia Kongslund’s trick for keeping costs low is simple: recycle. “I do my best to get the kids wear the same costumes like the previous years if they still fit, however now they dress as a team. A group of kids decide what they want to be and everyone in that group dress accordingly. They usually go for witches but let's see what they'll decide. They are older now, so it is not my decision anymore,” she explains. Kongslund's daughter was a pirate last year.
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Kongslund adds: “I try to get them as cheap as possible, most of them are second- hand items. So I get dresses for like 20-50 dirhams that in stores costs at least 100 by using our residential community Facebook group.”
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British mum-of-one Trishna, who runs the Insta-account bloggingmum101, dressed her son as Where’s Wally? She says look for discount codes to get economical outfits.
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Expats Megan Kelly and Brian have three children; they decided to dress-up family style. “The kids are angel (Izzy) dark angel (Fifi) and devil (Zara),” they told Gulf News. “The baby is our little spitfire so we chose a devil for her, and her oldest sister, Fifi, wanted to be something beautiful and spooky so she got a dark angel, while Izzy just wanted to be pretty so we found a family costume that worked for everyone,” explains Kelly. Brian was in charge of the cool make-up.
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UK mum Coriander Dean, who is based in Abu Dhabi, is a fan of Halloween décor and dressing–up. This year not only has she gone all-out to kit out a doll’s house to make it creep-takular, she has also created a cousin IT – from the Addams family - outfit. “He is basically just a hat and wool from Daiso and an old pair of sunglasses,” she explains.
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Syrian mum Sara Shbib explains that her son Jad Saleh, who is five years old, chose to be the web-slinger. “He choose Spiderman because it is his favourite superhero and he has a lot of great skills and he can shoot web like spiders. Plus, Jad loves spiders.”
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British mum-of-two Yasmin, whose Insta handle is thecareymum, and her two boys Mason and Ellis decided to match last Halloween; they dressed up as ‘a witch and her little skeletons’.
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Five-year-old Samaira Sehta dressed up as the witch from ‘Room on the Broom’ last year.
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Amanda Dias, from @raisingmyknights, explains her kids’ Star Wars costumes cost her Dh15. The BB8 bot was made by stitching felt onto a onesie and stuffing it with polyester fibrefil, R2D2 was made of chart paper, painted chart paper and a salad bowl.
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"My daughter is dressing up as black Alice because she likes ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and son, Nazim, as soldier because he likes soldiers so much and keeps watching army stuff and playing with army stuff as well," says mum Houda Ghediri. The Algerian mum of two runs the Insta account dubaimumdiaries.
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Nazim chose to be a soldier.
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While All Hallow’s Eve is traditionally about spooks, it can also serve as a way to teach, explains Canadian Instagram user and mum-of-two Dana Alqinneh, whose Insta handle is @curiousplay, who told Gulf News in an interview, “Personally speaking, letting your child pick their own Halloween costume is a fall tradition I think all parents should get on board with! As tempting as it is to want to dress our children ourselves in the cutest, latest or trendiest characters, introducing body autonomy is so important! Body autonomy isn’t just about teaching children about consent, asking for permission to touch others or being 100 per cent comfortable before hugging or high fiving anyone. It also includes getting a say in what you wear – giving them control over their bodies and what goes on it.”
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Three-year-old Sofia, Russian, looks as cute as a button in this DIY vintage doll outfit.
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Leonardo Maldini as a demon; Sole Tedeschi as Harley Quinn; Camilla Maldini as Morticia; and Ludovica Piazza as a demon
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Bakr and Mohamed Madhoun
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Briton Lucy Gregory’s sons - Theo (9), Rufus (7) and Baxter (5) - dressed up for school in a ghoul-rich way for Halloween.
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Amanda's DIY costumes are a great hit with her family.
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Vani Lokwani is wearing a witch’s outfit this time around. Her mother, Jia, says: “I feel it’s a really good activity for the kids show them to difference between good and bad. Every occasion is an option to give some new learning to the kids.”
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Nine-year-old DJ Michelle, from Azerbaijan, is dressed up in the costume of one of her favorite DJs – Claptone.
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20-month old Vanya, who is half Indian, half Filipino, loves her baby pumpkin ensemble
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Ashish, Alena, Pravda, Anushka, Ashley and Aman —known as Dilse kiddos among their family friends from India—got together to celebrate Halloween after a year’s gap due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year. “Our kids used to celebrate Halloween wearing spooky costumes and go trick-or-treating along with our neighbours’s kids all these years except last year. So this time, we got together for them to have fun in their favourite spooky costumes along with our pets Ranger and Rover. But there was no trick-or-treating as we are still being cautious about the preventive measures,” said their mothers known as Dilse Mas.
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Mum-of-two Gemma Plowman explains these costume choices. “Hugo is four, Evelynne is seven. We live in a sustainable community and this year we upcycled our costumes. Hugo wanted to be a skeleton so this is made from white tape on black old clothes and Evelynne wanted to be a spider so we upcycled an old witch dress and stuffed old tights to make spider legs. Environmentally friendly Halloween,” she says.
Image Credit: Instagram/@Dubaiexpatmum
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