to wish World Book Day should fuck the fuck off!

[Toraleistripe]

Grrrrrrrr. I'm hate it. I am all for celebrating reading and books but this yearly dress up activity at school drives me mad!

I have 2 Dc, they both want me to buy ready made costumes which will cost £30 or more! So not happening. I will still have to cobble something together though. I can't be arsed. We don't have anything. I have scoured the Internet for ideas. Kids either don't like the ideas or I don't have the stuff.

Sod off WBD!

cut head and arm holes in a pillow case - dobby the house elf

That's bloody genius!

DS2 is going as Burglar Bill. Jeans, converse, striped top, woolly hat and a £2 mask from eBay.

feel free to use it, Epona'sWildDaughter

I'm half way through making a Sam-I-Am costume for my eldest (favourite book is Green Eggs and Ham)
so my idea will go to waste otherwise

I can picture it now.

The girls will all wear Elsa dresses and the boys will wear spiderman or batman costumes. The odd few do something different but usually every dress up day is an Elsa/spiderman costume day

I hate dress up days with a passion.

God am dreading it.

DS (4) has a huge dinosaur outfit so he is going as the dinosaur that pooed Christmas. DD (8) is a bit harder. I am refusing to buy anything so she has the following outfits to choose from :-

The Anna Coronation dress from Frozen however she has refused to wear it (frozen is so last year).
A gothic vampiress costume from Halloween.
A Cleopatra outfit left over from schools Egyptian day.
A roman goddess outfit from schools roman day (was only 2 weeks ago.

Anyone with an idea of how I might recycle one of these?

wornoutboots - You know i am genuinely sorry that i wont be able to for a while!

Older 3 are teens and 20s and youngest is only just 2.

My favourite wbd was the year they had to dress in pyjamas and bring in their favourite bedtime story. No cost involved, but still fun. Children had to talk about/read a bit of their bedtime story to others and do new front covers.

Keep them at home for the day. When the school calls you, say they're being HG Wells' Invisible Man.

I love teachers who say it's not compulsory. Oh okay I'll deliberately make my dc stand out by being one of a handful of kids not dressed up
I once forgot a non uniform day and had to go home to get a change of clothes. Dd was so good about it but I could see her little 5yo face fighting the tears. Not compulsory my arse!

My kid's school has asked that they dress up as a character from books they are reading in class...my four year old hasn't got a clue about any of the characters and my 8 year old is reading something called "the sandhorse" and hasn't got a clue how to dress as one of the characters! Its ridiculous! The theme is "book characters" so why add on to that theme to only make it more difficult for the parents??
Last year for one of the charity events the theme was "hero's" easy enough...until the school decided to add on to it by making them dress as a hero in their lives. My daughter wanted to go as me...:-)...jeans and T-shirt it was then! Haha!

Sorry, Rocksie, you beat me to it! 

Keeps trudging I'd much rather my kids went to a school that did the pjs thing than dressing up, it seems like a much more educational thing to do than the vulgar, expensive dressing up, which just makes money for Teaco and Asda! As for the not compulsory bit, do teachers actually believe it when they say that??

Just use stuff you already have in the house.
I do.
Plastic tat crown and sword. Old balaklava. My old leather belt and hey presto, enter King Arthur.
Or get an old pinny/dress, sew on a few patches (took me 10 minutes and I'm crap at sewing), pipe cleaners plaited into plaits, bit of makeup, odd long socks over holey tights and da-dah! Pippi Longstocking.
It pisses me off too - or rather the insistence that everyone has to be involved. But I point blank refuse to buy expensive dresses and outfits.
I cannot believe some people are told what book to come in as! Jesus Christ.
And as for confiscating a plastic sword? Seriously?!!!

This is my first one. I've given dd a choice of what we already have in our fancy dress box: the Secret Mermaid, tinkerbell, on condition we read Peter Pan together first, gruffalo or Angelina Ballerina. She's chosen the latter but we have a sort of tutu thing and ballet shoes so I'm just going to make ears on a headband, a tail and draw on whiskers. Not too hard. I'd be pissed off if school moved the goalposts and insisted on sci fi or something like I've heard some schools do, as they didn't give much notice

I think it must get harder as kids get older as the books they like just have kids in without a recognisable costume. Some sort of pirate is probably a safe enough bet though and easy enough to cobble together. Go in pjs and be the kids in Peter Pan?

my year 1 (6 years old) sons school is doing the book 'the day the crayons quit' (never hear of it myself' he has t go dressed as a....crayon.....

Hersetta427 gothic vampiress dress idea: take away any horns or sharp teeth (if they are part of it!), do very messy bed hair with a bit of cobweb in (you can get cheap cobwebby stuff online cut price from Halloween, or just put a bit of white flour in hair to give dirty, grey effect), sickly pale face (more flour or white face paint diluted down), black circled tired eyes, slightly smudged mouth...add a shawl (old sheet is good, which you can do some blood stained splatters on and dirty it up a bit) and be a corpse bride from Tim Burton's book

YANBU.

Dd1 went as the squirrel from the gruffalo in Reception, except the tail was a bit of a rough homemade job so everyone thought she was the fox.

This year I am thinking Roald Dahl - Matilda and Lola from Charlie and Lola - own clothes simple.

upthegardenpath that sounds brilliant. I even have a black lace scarf that will go nicely as a veil. She will love going into school with lots of makeup on - I did this in October for a halloween fancy dress party and she won 1st prize!

Last year they had to dress at a word rather than a book. DD went as the word geeky and looked amazing in a long sleeve white shirt, red bow tie, red tartan pleated skirt, plaited hair and broken geek glasses. She won a book token for best outfit/word. I guess I have that outfit too but I can't think how to work it into a book theme.

EponasWildDaughter
some nurseries do it too, little babies in fancy dress costume. My 2nd kid is in school nursery but we're recycling his brother's Cat in the Hat costume (we read a lot of dr seuss here)

Otherwise he'd be about the right size. And they can start the term after they turn 3, so maybe you'll be able to vandalise your bedding next year ;-)

I have a variety of bought costumes if he decides to be difficult and not be the Cat (he might well do, he's stubborn but he does like dressing up) - being a dragon is always his favourite so I'd have to find him a book with a dragon in and photocopy a page from that.

the school want them to take the books in ... erm, no? coz we like our books and want them back in good condition which they wouldn't be after a 5 year old and a 3 year old have waved them around etc all day!

I refuse to spend more than £5 per child - preferably less

Last year DD was Arrietty from The Borrowers and I bought a red dress on sale in Primark for £3 and a giant clothes peg for her hair.

This year she wants to be Katniss from Hunger Games so I have bought the Mockingjay brooch off eBay for £2.50 and will make a bag thingy for the bow and arrows she already has.

DS went as Charlie Bucket last year (jeans/waistcoat/golden ticket in pocket) This year he wants to be a pirate...I think a hat and an eyepatch from the £ shop will suffice with normal jeans and dark top...might do a red neckerchief if he is lucky.

we've also dressed 2nd child (2 years ago, so aged 1) as Thing One (as an accessory to his brother, who insisted that "my brother dress up too!" despite him not being in nursery at that time).

red onesie, some left over fabric, some fabric glue, and some blue hair spray! quick and easy, if you already have the stuff.

I don't think (hope not!) ours are dressing up; they haven't before (Head is a bit of a misery). Ideas for easy win costumes should we ever be asked:
Girls - Pippa Longstocking (stripy top, stripy tights, pigtails and eyeliner freckles). Katie whatsherface on that Scottish island (sorry brain fail!) - Arran jumper, tartan skirt and wellies. Fancy Nancy - party dress and bling crap plastic jewelry. Laura Ingalls Little House on wherever - flowery dress, apron, sandals, plaits.

Boys - Harry (bucket of plastic Dinos). Charlie Bucket - scruffieSt clothes you can find. Itch (fab book by Simon Mayo) - lab coat.

Either gender - knickerbockers and an Arran jumper, bottle of ginger beer - any from Famous Five!!

DDs class (Yr 2) has been reading Charlottes Web so DD asked if she could go as Fern. She already has a pig toy, she'd like to take a spider along as well and the costume is jeans/dungarees and a checked shirt. I understand no-one wants to go overboard, but personally I like WBD. I know how much DD has enjoyed Charlottes Web and I was very impressed that she came up with her own costumer (and that it was easy!)