Tomorrow night is October 31, All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, and that calls for some imaginative senior Halloween costumes.  The first thing you have to find out is if the kids in your neighborhood are trick or treating. The next thing you have to decide: what are you going to be?

Here are six easy senior Halloween costumes, fast and fun and mostly pretty inexpensive. Add appropriate makeup, if you wish.

1. 50 Shades of Gray. Go to Wal-Mart or your local hardware store, and get a number of the paper paint chips that show the different colors. Get grays and blacks. Cut them up if necessary, use a hole punch, and pin them over a plain top. Soon you’ll be a fun take-off on the recent popular book. Or go all out, and wear your le0pard skin skirt and glitter!

2. The laundry basket. Cut the bottom out of an old plastic laundry basket, enough to wear it over a sweat suit or jeans. Heap it up with clothing, make suspenders out of clotheline and clothespins, and add a detergent box to hold the goodies you pass out at the door.  Pinning some dryer sheets on your shirt will add to the effect.

3. The artist. For this, you need black pants and a black sweatshirt, or perhaps an artist’s smock or lab coat. Make a pallet out of cardboard, and add dabs of paint. (You can cut out “paint colors” from any number of paint swatches you pick up at Walmart, and glue them on to your pallet.) Obviously, you must have a beret, paint on your face, a big paint brush, and perhaps a piece of “art” to show off. Bonus points if you dip the brush in water and “paint” each nose. (They’ll only know it’s wet….like paint.)

halloween costumes could be a smiling jack o'lanternSenior Halloween Costumes: Just Add Imagination

4. think about pivotal props. Sometimes you only need a few things to become a character. Soot on your face, an old brush or two to hang around your neck, and a newsboy’s cap or even a top hat combined with an English accent will make you a chimney sweep.  A headscarf, black eye patch and vest will make you a pirate. Add some flowing material to be a gypsy. A cowboy hat, neckerchief and jeans (along with a toy gun) will make you into a cowboy. Your coat buttoned over your head with a jack o’lantern under your arm makes you the headless horseman.

5. Author. Find your favorite book, carry it, and dress up like the author or be inspired by a favorite character. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle needs only that pipe and hat.  Margaret Mitchell needs a plain dress, an apron,  a copy of “Gone with the Wind” and a southern accent. A tweed blazer and glasses will turn you into TE Lawrence as long as you’re carrying “Lawrence of Arabia”. Then there’s always Mr. Rogers, where simple cardigan sweaters make perfect Halloween costumes. Or carry a small can of Danish ham, and be “Hamlet”.

6. Your hobby.  I was the Mad Baker for several years, with a white jacket, mixing bowls, a chef’s hat, and my singed hair is disarray with smoke on my face. A red checked neckerchief completed the outfit. Wear your biking gear, add a flashing light or two and carry a wheel. Put on your life jacket, helmet and kayak paddle. Create a quick sandwhich board of all the football teams you’ve watched this fall, or make yourself into your favorite baseball card, dominoe or mahjong tile. The object is to have fun and use what you’ve got to create great halloween costumes!