With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, now is a great time to gobble up Thanksgiving costumes for your school play or family party! We have a large selection of Pilgrim, Native American and Turkey costumes for children and adults.

Costume Craze is here to help make your Thanksgiving festivities fun and something to remember.

And best of all, through November 14th, EVERYTHING is on sale at 30% to 60% off!

Gobbler Turkey Hat $19.95 $13.97	Pilgrim Boy Costume $16.95 $11.87	Pilgrim Girl Costume $18.95 $13.27
Indian Babe Costume $33.95 $23.77	Turkey Costume $99.99 $69.99	Costume Peace Pipe $3.99 $2.79
Indian Warrior Costume $115.95 $81.17	Pilgrim Girl Costume $31.95 $22.37	Pocahantas Costume $27.95 $19.57

VIEW ALL THANKSGIVING COSTUMES

It’s hard to believe that Halloween is over. My, how time flies. I hope everyone had a great time dressing in costumes and eating lots of candy!

Costume Craze finished the season with a big celebration. Employees came to work in costume, and we ended the day with a Halloween party for friends and family. It was a ton of fun! We had great food, games, a pumpkin carving contest, as well as crayons and coloring books for the little ones.
 

Employees were each given a Certificate of Excellence in recognition of their great work this Halloween season, which was very nice.

After shipping hundreds of thousands of Halloween costumes, we had a MOUNTAIN of cardboard boxes. We took a fun photo posing by all the cardboard. This week a recycling company will come and truck it all away.

 
Here are a few more photos from the event. Be sure to visit our PHOTO GALLERY to view all the pictures.

Special thanks to the Maloneys for taking such good care of us and throwing such a great party!

Over 2000 years ago, the Celts celebrated their new year, on November 1st, which marked the end of the harvest season. The Celts believed that on the night before the New Year (Samhain) the veil between the living and the dead blurred, allowing ghosts to haunt the land and damage crops. To avoid being recognized by unearthly spirits, people adorned ghoulish masks and costumes when they ventured out after dark.

European immigrants brought their customs with them to America, but because early New England maintained a strict Protestant belief system, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited.

Over time, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge as cultures melded. Halloween was more common in Maryland and the southern colonies, with citizens taking part in public harvest celebrations–telling stories of the dead, dancing, singing and telling each other’s fortunes. Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere, but yearly fall festivities were common.

With the arrival of millions of Irish immigrants in America (because of the potato famine of 1846), Halloween finally took hold as a national celebration. Interestingly, the first store bought Halloween costume didn’t become available until the 1930’s.

In addition to wearing costumes, many of today’s other Halloween traditions can be traced back to the ancient Celtic “Day of the Dead”, including bobbing for apples, trick-or-treating, carving vegetables (The Celts originally used turnips, but pumpkins were more readily available to early American immigrants) and drinking cider.

 
From all of us at Costume Craze…
 

Only a few weeks left before Halloween! Need help deciding what to be? We’ve put together a special online catalog to help you browse through our large selection of Halloween costumes.

This is a great way to view our most popular costumes and see what’s new for 2008. The handy interface allows you to easily turn pages, zoom and print. You’ll find the perfect costume in no time!

CLICK HERE to view the 2008 Catalog.

Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Right now, ordinary people all around t’ world be shoutin’ “Arrrrr!” and “Thar she blows!” It’s a lot o’ fun.

If you want t’ get in on t’ action, but aren’t knowin’ how t’ talk like a pirate, never fear. Here be a handy Pirate Translator, and over on MyDisguises thar be instructional videos.

Our costume mate, ThatCostumeGirl (shown port) be dressin’ like a pirate today on her blog. She looks great!

She’ll be addin’ more pirate photos throughout t’ day, so you might want t’ keep your eye on her blog.

She be wearin’ our Buccaneer Babe Pirate Costume sold HERE.

 
If Pirates be your thin’, you’ll enjoy browsin’ t’ large selection of Pirate Costumes in our store. We have hundreds o’ pirate costumes and accessories for guys and gals o’ all ages — even dogs!

Here be a few more o’ me favorite Pirate Costumes. Be sure t’ browse our entire selection HERE.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Precious Baby Pirate	Pirate Siren Costume	Captain Cutthroat
Petite Pirate Costume	El Capitan Pirate	Premier Pirate Costume
Pirate Scoundrel Costume	Sassy Victorian Pirate	Pirate Dog Costume

You probably knew that the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, setting the thirteen colonies on the road to freedom.

But…did you know?

The stars on the original American flag were arranged in a circle to ensure that all colonies were equal.

Before cars ruled the roadway, the Fourth of July was traditionally the most miserable day of the year for horses, tormented by all the noise and by the boys and girls who threw firecrackers at them.

Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on Independence Day, July 4, 1826.

The names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were withheld from the public for more than six months to protect the signers. If independence had not been achieved, the treasonable act of the signers would have, by law, resulted in their deaths.

The word patriotism comes from the Latin patria, which means homeland or fatherland.

Costume Craze has a great selection of patriotic costumes for all of your Americana needs…plays, ceremonies and special events!

Have a happy and safe Independence Day!