Kids’ costumes in modern times have gone from sickly sweet to just plain sick. A walk down the dripping, splattered, fake-blood-soaked Halloween aisle of your favorite drugstore proves a point last heard in 2000: Gore wins the popular vote.

When I went online to find my kids costumes, I found life-like swords and machetes, clear masks that filled up with blood, and a variety of disembodied heads and severed limbs. I saw a “zombie doctor” costume with “PVC rotting chest, pants with rotted knee, zombie mask, surgical mask, surgical cap and latex gloves” that came in size 4-6!

Halloween is one of the greatest holidays. Like most holidays, it has its share of commercialism, but it doesn’t come with the obligations, guilt, and [...]

It’s that time of year again, when parents have to avoid drug stores and Wal-Mart as often as possible, if only to get away from multiple requests for a second costume, or another set of make-up, or a third pumpkin carving kit. It’s also the time of year when we look at costumes that are [...]