Why I Buy My Children's Halloween Outfits Preloved

Halloween is one of those occasions that children absolutely love, but it can also become another reason to buy a pile of things that are used for one evening and then forgotten about.

With three children, I’ve become much more conscious of this over the years. We still love Halloween and the children still get excited about dressing up, but these days I nearly always look for their Halloween costumes second hand.

I would love to tell you that I lovingly make all their costumes myself every year, but I’m really not very good at that! Buying preloved is my much more realistic alternative.

Why Halloween costumes are perfect for buying second hand

If you think about how long most children actually wear their Halloween costume, buying it preloved makes so much sense.

Research from Hubbub found that an estimated seven million Halloween costumes were thrown away in the UK each year. Separate 2019 research by the Fairyland Trust and Hubbub estimated that Halloween clothing and costumes generated around 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste. A large proportion of the costumes they examined contained plastic-based materials such as polyester.

Those figures are from older research, so I wouldn't pretend they tell us exactly what is happening in 2026, but they do show the scale of the problem created when dressing-up clothes are treated as disposable.

For something that might only be worn for a few hours, it seems such a waste.

Buying something they'll wear after Halloween

One thing I particularly like to do is look for costumes that aren't only useful on Halloween.

Princess dresses, superhero costumes, witches, cats and favourite characters can all go straight into the dressing-up box afterwards.

My daughter loves Descendants and particularly Evie, for example. If I can find something connected to a character she genuinely loves, there's a much better chance she'll continue playing in it long after Halloween has finished.

That's much more appealing to me than buying an outfit that's so specifically Halloween-themed that nobody looks at it again after 31 October.

Children don't really care whether something was marketed as a Halloween costume. If it lets them become a princess, superhero, witch or favourite character on a rainy Sunday afternoon in February, they'll happily wear it again.

Where I look for preloved Halloween costumes

As with children's clothing generally, I start looking before we actually need something.

That's particularly important with preloved because you can't guarantee that the right costume will appear in the right size the week before Halloween.

Second hand marketplaces, charity shops and preloved children's shops can all be worth checking. Costume swaps between friends and family are another brilliant option.

Hubbub's Halloween research actually found that 73% of people surveyed were happy to wear a used costume from a friend or relative.

That's why I think Halloween is such an easy place to start if your family hasn't bought much second hand before.

What we do with costumes afterwards

Once my children have finished with something, I don't want it sitting unused forever.

If it's still something they enjoy playing with, it stays in the dressing-up collection. Otherwise, we'll pass it on or sell it so another child can enjoy it.

That means one costume could potentially be worn by several children instead of each family buying another new one.

And because we've bought it preloved in the first place, we can often sell it on again without losing much money.

Halloween decorations can be second hand too!

It's not just the clothes.

We've found plenty of Halloween decorations second hand over the years as well. Once we've got them, we keep them and bring them out again the following year.

I really don't understand spending lots of money every October replacing perfectly good decorations.

Obviously children love the excitement of Halloween. I'm not suggesting taking the fun out of it. I just don't think having fun has to mean buying another trolley full of brand-new plastic decorations every year.

Our Halloween box comes out, we decorate the house, everyone gets excited and then everything goes back away ready for next year.

Start looking earlier than you think

If you're hoping to buy your children's Halloween costumes preloved, my biggest piece of advice is not to wait until the last few days of October.

Start looking a few weeks beforehand.

With second hand shopping, you sometimes have to wait for the right thing to appear. Starting earlier gives you time to find something your child genuinely likes rather than panic-buying whatever is available.

Ask your child what they'd actually like to be too. If they're currently obsessed with a particular character, superhero or princess, searching for that can be much more successful than simply searching for "Halloween costume".

Halloween without all the waste

I don't think we need to make children's celebrations boring in order to make them less wasteful.

My children still get Halloween costumes. We still decorate. We still enjoy all the excitement that comes with it.

We just try to think about what happens to everything afterwards.

Can the costume go into the dressing-up box? Can it be passed to another child? Can we sell it? Can the decorations be packed away and used next year?

Buying preloved isn't about children missing out. In our house, it often means they can have exactly the costume they want for less money, and someone else's barely worn costume gets another chance to be loved.

That seems a lot less scary to me.