Peter Costa

Three inexpensive do-it-yourself ideas for an original Halloween theme. The supplies and materials needed you can buy locally.

Here are a few ideas gathered over the years from Halloween costume parties. You can use these ideas to inspire you to create better ones.

Today's interest in pirates is driven by popular films on recent release starring Johny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. Such films have driven the demand for the pirate costume. However the history of pirates is fascinating. A pirate made his living through his piracy and used weapons as his tools. So guns and swords were as important to him as the treasure itself. They always made sure their weapons were working because in battle their life depended on them. The cutlass was the most famous of the

The buccaneers were pirates who lived on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and in the 1600's, they attacked any Spanish ships heading back to Spain from South America, which were mostly laden with treasure. They took over many of the Caribbean islands and used them as a base to travel all over the world. If you take a look at their dress, you will see cutlasses and head scarves that are so well depicted in today's pirate costume outfits.

Today's great love of the pirate costume derived from the notoriety of the pirates. Pirates loved to attack other ships on the high seas. But many had special jobs to carry out on board their own vessels. Listed below are a few of these tasks.

An attractive accessory to your Halloween costume this year, would be a well designed pumpkin. Select one with no bruises or spots, because it will last longer. The difficulty when selecting, is we usually see a pumpkin as a large face. So for example, you might pick one that a family member always bought and carved out in to a grinner. Maybe you go for the oddly shaped one that needs looking after. You can see how they start to take on a life of their own.

When Walt Disney Pictures released their first 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie in 2003 it soon became evident that they were onto a winner. Since the early days of film when there were such classics as 'Captain Blood ' in 1935 and 'The Sea Hawk ' in 1940 there have been very few films about pirates that are worth any real mention. Only a few examples come to mind such as Roman Polanski's 'Pirates' in 1986 and 'The Goonies' which made good use of a pirate-based storyline.

If you are planning to organise a fancy-dress party then 'pirates' would be a really good theme. Just imagine the hilarity of a room full of your friends and family members all dressed up as Long John Silver, Black Bart, Captain Jack Sparrow and the like. The whole scene would be so much fun right from the beginning that you can guarantee that it will go down a storm.

In 1977 when George Lucas released 'Star Wars' a type of mass hysteria overcame the general public. His film was expected to do well but not to the degree that it did. Everywhere that you looked or went it was all around you. The movie captured the imaginations of both children and adults alike. It was a unique and magical time in the history of cinema.

Since J.K. Rowling first created the character of Harry Potter it has snowballed into one of the biggest things for children (and many adults) ever. When 'Jo' Rowling came up with the initial idea on a train journey between Manchester and London no-one could have imagined quite what it would all lead to. A great part of the charm of her story is how, within the space of five years, she went from living on Social Security benefits to multi-millionaire status.