One family's Halloween costumes are getting decades of use, with children still wearing dress-up pieces from more than 30 years ago.
Here's what to know
A discussion on Reddit's r/Anticonsumption community began with a question about what happens to a whole family's Halloween outfits after the holiday.
The original poster wrote: "Genuinely thinking what do people do with outfits for the whole family after they are done with Halloween? Year after year. Thinking about how much waste we humans produce gives me the scaries."
Dress-up play gave one family's costumes a purpose beyond Halloween night, stretching for decades. The parent who posted also said their decorations remained in use until they fell apart.
"Our Halloween decorations are kept until they fall apart, the costumes our kids wear are dress up items, some of which date back to my childhood 30+ years ago," they explained. "Anything that's not stored will be given away on Facebook and there's usually a ton of takers around next Halloween."
Other comments mentioned reusing decorations year to year, along with getting costumes secondhand or swapping them with friends.
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"You absolutely can do it with minimal consumption," a top-voted poster wrote. "Decorative pumpkins and gourds go on the compost heap afterwards. Costumes made of reused items, worn out clothes, thrifted clothes. Any decorations not made of reused trash should be high quality and stored for next year. Ditto for custom items."
More background
Outside Halloween, one poster's daughter used her thrift-store costumes for dress-up throughout the year. The parent described the outfits as comfortable and sturdy and said continued use extended the life of the purchases.
Batman and a knight were among the characters siblings played using a black cape, another commenter recalled. The cape had previously served for several years as part of witch costumes.
One commenter said the prospect of storing decorations for an entire year keeps them from buying any. Others emphasized the joy of neighborhood trick-or-treating, dressing up, and giving children treats. They hoped to preserve these traditions while reducing waste.
What can be done?
Candy was a tricky one for commenters.
"We do traditional door to door trick or treating and take our time walking around and enjoying it, the goal isn't to get lots of candy quickly," a commenter wrote. "We stop when we have the amount of candy that we can eat."
Reusing costumes and reworking them for dress-ups throughout the year was the most common solution for outfits. For one commenter whose daughter was rewearing a couples outfit with her partner, using the same costume again did not take away from the celebration.
"Anticonsumption shouldn't have to mean anti-fun," they wrote.
Where can I learn more?
The habit of reusing Halloween costumes can carry over to everyday clothes and seasonal decorations.
• One poster keeps wearing a secondhand sweater from the 1990s, resisting pressure to replace it.
• A budget creator recommends reusing last year's fall decor and skipping seasonal extras to save money.
• A dumpster diver finds discarded TJ Maxx Halloween merchandise and questions why it was trashed.
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