BDBF Halloween Costume Hits from the Past

Halloween will soon be here!

The hits of 2024 involve political candidates, Australian breakdancing sensation Ray-gun, and any character from Beetlejuice.

But at BDBF, we like to live in our past glory. After all, many of us were much more exciting about 20 years ago.

So, what are our favorite Halloween costumes from the past? And, more specifically, what are our favorite paired Halloween costumes? Read on for some dangerously dated pop culture references…

Liz Farley

I have done many group Halloween costumes in my time.

During college, my friends and I dressed up like pop stars and Survivor contestants.

However, my favorite is from my senior year of high school. My friends and I dressed in different costumes. But we were also ghosts with white ghost sheets. During breaks between classes, we would throw our sheets on over top of our costumes and run through the halls but stealthily take them off before we got to class. The end result – nobody ever knew who the ghosts were! Unfortunately, I could not find any photo evidence of these ghost costumes … how spooky! However, in lieu of a photo of my ghost costume, I did find a picture of one of my earliest paired costumes – my sister and I dressed up as matching fairy princesses.

Phil Kuljurgis

Generally, I eschew partnered costumes (Editor’s note – so does Jeremy).

But, here goes:

I spend most of my Halloweens dressing as Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. However, one year I took a break from that and did a couples’ costume with my wife. We went as Pam and Dwight from The office. I would go up to unsuspecting strangers and ask them questions. If they got it wrong I would say “false.” If they answered correctly I awarded them with a self-printed Shrute buck. My wife pretended to be Pam and acted mortified.

Jeremy Rachlin

The year was 2005. I was a third-year law student. And the world could not stop talking about “TomKat.” For you young’uns (like Liz Farley), I’m referring to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Tom Cruise was jumping around couches on the set of Oprah proclaiming his love for the much younger (and very pregnant) Katie Holmes. So for Halloween that year, my then-girlfriend (now wife) and I went as TomKat. Tom Cruise was in full “Mission Impossible black” at the time, so I dyed my hair black (and lost my security deposit on my apartment in the process), wore all black, borrowed the biggest Scientology tome I could from the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and did some gentle parkour jumping around on furniture at a Halloween party. My wife went as a very pregnant Katie Holmes in a Capeside High t-shirt (the home of Dawson’s Creek, if you’ve forgotten). We crushed it.

Meg Rosan

Nothing brings me more joy than a paired Halloween costume, and luckily my husband is a good sport to put up with these on occasion. My all-time favorite paired Halloween costume was from 2017 when we dressed as “Variations on a Color Theme”. Peter was Ron Burgundy and I was Maroon 5.

Dan Shaivitz

When I read the email from Jeremy asking us about our favorite paired Halloween costume, I was very disappointed. I was disappointed in a number of ways. First, I was disappointed that I could not answer the question honestly. Second (and the reason I could not answer honestly), I was disappointed in myself for not using better judgment as a young man especially in my college years and especially on Halloween. Fortunately, there were no cell phones with cameras or social media in those days. Unfortunately, there were still lots of cheap digital and disposable cameras that probably (and maybe definitely) captured those moments. So, for this article I must plead the Fifth though I once really enjoyed dressing as an inflatable Slimer from the Ghostbusters with my family (my wife was an inflatable Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and the boys were Ghostbusters). And all that having been said, if you happen to catch me in the right mood on a full moon (and in the case of a client, if you already have paid your last bill in full), maybe (just maybe) I might share the real answer(s). Sorry mom and dad for me being such a handful!