Have you met my husband, Andrew? Well, you will soon learn about his MILD love affair with Christmas light decorating.
Comparing Andrew to Clark Griswold may sound like I'm being a little dramatic, but once you start to follow his fascination with outdoor Christmas lights; his love affair will quickly light up like a Christmas tree, lol. Dude! (Yes, I just said 'Dude') MY friends are working him to start decorating the house before Thanksgiving and there is probably a petition circulating amongst them to sway me into allowing Andrew to decorate early.
Well, when I think of obnoxious, tacky, over the top Christmas light decorating... I think of Clark Griswold's Christmas Vacation, remember when the squirrel jumped from the Christmas tree... Which would lead you directly to our Halloween costume.
This is how I designed a Christmas Tree Costume to wear with Andrew's Clark Griswold costume...
Lily & Frog Supplies:
- Decorative Christmas floral decor
- Hot glue gun
- Safety pins
- Sticky velcro
- 3 yards of holiday fabric
- 3 yards of green tulle
- Assortment of holiday ribbon
- Green t-shirt
- 2 inch gold wire ribbon
- Squirrel
- Battery operated Christmas lights
Lily & Frog DIY Instructions:
Christmas Tree Tutu Skirt; I created the Christmas Tree Tutu Skirt from my Tutu Tutorial in an adult size. I found a holiday fabric (at 50% OFF), it was full of pine needles and shinny green, red, and gold ornaments.
After sewing the tutu skirt with a tulle under side, line the rough bottom edges of the tulle with decorative holiday ribbon which was left over from last season.
Lay the tutu skirt flat on the floor, collecting Christmas floral decor and hot glue gun. Prepped each piece of floral decor by snipping off the post, bending the leaves and ornaments into a position.
Before hot gluing everything into place, lay each floral decor item on the skirt in a random pattern, but ensuring there was a place for you to sit down without sitting on an ornament. Hot glued each floral decor piece into place.
Onto the shirt, using an old shirt from my closet (or Goodwill), the color went perfectly with the green in the pine needles. I laid all the floral decor items out on the shirt and proceeded to hot glue them into place.
Then I added a squirrel (Remember when the squirrel leap from the tree?!?)... which we found in the pet department of Target!
The lights... 3 strands of 6ft battery operated Christmas lights. I debated hot gluing the strands into place... but though the weight from the lights would ripe under the hot glue. I used safety pins to secure the lights into place.
Lay the skirt flat on the floor again, wrapping the strands of Christmas lights loosely in a circle around the skirt. Place the battery pack in a location that you will not be sitting on it, secure the battery packs with sticky velcro on the under side of my fabric part of the skirt. I placed my battery packet on my hip... The velcro was OK to hold in place, but I ended up safety pinning that as well.
Christmas Tree Star Topper... Create a giant hair bow from 2 inch wide gold, sparkly and shinny ribbon. Be sure to purchase ribbon with wire in the seams, this helps to make the bow bigger, puffier, and hold it's form. I decorated the giant gold bow with some of the gold Christmas floral decor.
Getting ready for our night out as Clark Griswold and his Christmas Tree, I wore brown stocking with my favorite brown pumps, pulling my hair out of my face with bobby pins and the giant gold hair bow I designed.
Designing Andrew's Clark Griswold Halloween costume to go along with his Christmas Tree
Lily & Frog Supplies:
Light T-Shirt Transfer paper
White T-shirt
"Old Man" Sweater
Santa Hat
Lily & Frog DIY Instructions:
Begin with researching an image for the Blackhawks hockey team logo. This is a job I handed over to Andrew, because I know nothing about sports! When you find one with a large and clear resolution, start work on the back of his shirt. I designed the name Griswold and 00 for the back of the T-shirt to appear as a normal sporting jersey.
Once all the images are created, follow the instructions on the Light T-Shirt Transfer paper. Begin with printing the images as a "mirror" image. After printing is completed (following the instructions on the transfer paper), cut out the design accordingly.
Center the Blackhawk logo on the front of the white t-shirt and iron into place. DO NOT remove the paper backing from the transfer paper. Flip the T-Shirt over, center the name Griswold and 00 on the back and iron into place. DO NOT remove the paper backing from the transfer paper. Once the paper backing is cool, begin peeling off the paper backing. If at anytime the image is not adhering to the T-shirt, repeat ironing, wait for it to cool and them try removing it again. DO NOT iron directly onto the image once you remove the paper backing. And you have your own personal Griswold Blackhawk t-shirt!
For is costume, Andrew dressed in dark jeans, a grey sweater and Santa Hat... Which by the way, hunting for a Santa Hat on October 31, about 1 hour before the party is highly entertaining. After the third stop at a retailer, I was about to throw in the sleigh bells. Hit with the true Christmas spirit, Andrew would not give up! And if you need to know, CVS had Santa hats on October 31!
