There's a particular spelling error that Spell Check loves to catch and "correct." Make an error in spelling the word customer and 99 out of 100 times the word will be corrected to read costumer. You know--the costumer is always right. This used to be just a minor annoyance in marking papers but I'm beginning to think that there is something else going on with this word confusion.
It's almost Purim, and costumers are in great demand right now. There are any number of places which rent out costumes for Purim and any number that sell the costumes outright. I took a look at the prices of some of those costumes, both through the gemachs and those being sold. Guess what? There is sometimes mega money involved. Yes, I consider it mega money when you rent a costume for one day for a 2-year-old that can cost you $30 and up. Yes, I consider it mega money when buying a "super duper" costume can run $50 and waaay up. (One gemach had the "fancier" costumes for $65 and up, and they had been reserved for months already.) Take four kids and rent/buy their costumes and begin at $120 and head for the stratosphere. Let's not even mention what adult costumes can cost.
This is one place where homemade definitely beats out what can be gotten "out there." This is one place where buying/renting can put a crimp in the budget. Yet again, there is a competition to see who can find the "best" costumes, can make others say "Wow!" You think those costumes are all going to be recycled among the kids? Uh huh. You tell your little Yankele that he has to wear his big brothers "old" costume while that older brother gets a new one--watch out for the tears and fireworks.
There has been so much talk this year about cutting down on Purim expenses, on giving more to matanos l'evyonim instead of to shalach monos and/or other Purim expenses. Costumes have been mentioned by no one, and yet they are an obvious place to save.
Instead of heading for the checkbook, head for scissors and paper and tape and glue. Let your kids get creative. And let's head away from the costumer/customer confusion. You don't need to be a customer of a costumer to have a great time on Purim.
12 comments:
I'm with you! No costumes for rent in our area but the prices for older/bigger children and adults to buy can be lots more then $50 each costume.
My hubby has a great costume this year, made at home. He's going to be wearing brown pants and a brown shirt. We bought a pack of play money for $1. We taped the money all over the pants and shirt. He's going as a money tree. Had to talk him out of visiting the head of our local yeshiva for Purim with a sign that he wanted to print up saying "money doesn't grow on trees.
Wow. And I thought the year I let my daughter buy $15.00 of fabric to make a costume was a lot, but I did it anyway, figuring the sewing was a good activity.
Either the cheapest or most expensive costumes our kids ever had was using our PhD hoods to dress up as Esther/Mordechai. Cost nothing if you consider that they were gathering dust in the closet anyway. On the other hand, if you price them at 4-5 years tuition plus labor they probably amounted to a 6 figure sum.
Plan ahead. A great time to shop is the post-Halloween sales when you can get all sorts of cheap crowns, tiaras, princess costumes, animal costumes, super hero, soldier costumes etc. at highly reduced prices.
MIKE S.
you should have skipped the graduation and save a few bucks on the hoods
PROFK:
sure, first you want to abolish getting embarassingly drunk. then ostentatious mishlo'ach manot. now overpriced costumes. is there anything left to purim? why don't you just abolish the holiday altogether?
We go to the 2nd hand store Halloween Time and the kids pick out their costumes. I was generous this year. I think we spent about $10 for 3 great costumes to add to our collection. I lend out costumes every year to friends. So I'm more than happy to spend a bit of money every year to add to our collection.
I don't get the NY gemach thing. Here this are really borrowed.
LoZ: My parents wanted to come to mine (and paid for the hood.) They found it worthwhile. My wife's came with the tuition which was paid for by a grant anyway. And was awarded in a fairly child friendly ceremony. ironically, now that she is a faculty member and has to wear on periodically she has bought a full set of these things.
mike:
my mother made me go to one graduation. later my wife made me go to another. in the middle was one that i ignored.
Lion,
Going to differ with you on this one--what else is new? I LOVE graduations. Someone joked that I keep going to school because I must love the different clothing each one brings.
And yes Mike, graduation is also about family. My mother has attended every one of her children's and grandchildren's graduations, from nursery through the PhD and the look on her face is worth whatever discomfort there might be in 3 hours of speeches and diploma giving.
Thank you! I grew up with homemade costumes. We went through each others' basements and parents' closets and used old sheets. We chose costumes we could do ourselves. And now everyone here is buying...
I agree- hit the Halloween sales. Also, for princesses and queens and kallahs, go to a cheap kids-wear store or department and pick up a cheap party dress. And this year, three of my kids are recycled and the other two made their own. For shame!
We do a combination of home made and store bought. usually I'll buy some cheap store shirts or tshirts to form the basis for a costume and then we decorate them. Crowns and other accessories are all homemade too. Way too expensive to be buying the costumes. Besides, the kids have fun creating something that's personally their own. But a lot of their friends get the store bought costumes and they are a lot of money.
my Ph.D. hood was rented. oh well.
Prof K:
Depends on the graduation. MIT's are interminable. It is about 4 hours just of reading the names (plus speeches). At one it was raining, and despite the fact that the thousands of people not on the podium giving speeches were getting drenched, they didn't miss one word of one speech. No one young enough to have a parent graduating, and few of those old enough to have a child graduating can sit through it on the uncomfortable folding chairs provided. They do, however, award the PhD hoods the afternoon before in a brief and more informal (i.e. kids can run around a little) ceremony. (We had 3 under the age of 10.5 at the time)
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