As Halloween approaches, we all begin scramble to find the perfect costumes to celebrate the holiday that originated about 2,000 years ago for Celtic festivals. People wore costumes such as animal heads and skins to ward off ghosts. In 609 A.D., Romans celebrated a similar festival, known as All Saint’s Day, where they dressed up like saints, angels and devils.

Moving forward to the United States around the nineteenth century, styles began to change. From the 1970’s until today, costumes have seemed to shrink each year. So, either we wash our costumes too much or companies have decided that less is in fact more.

Shopping for my Halloween costume each year has become more and more of a challenge. My sister and I recently went hunting for costumes but found ourselves stuck in a dilemma. Although we found a massive amount of costumes, we could not find any women costumes that included pants.

We laughed at all the once innocent costumes which reminded us of our childhood, and now will haunt us in our sleep. Our once loved movie “Pocahontas,” had been reimagined as an adult costume called “Sexy Indian Princess,” and another favorite, “Snow White,” has become “Sexy Snow White.” It seemed anything we once loved as a child has now turned into a “sexy” costume that shows more skin than creativity.

I remember growing up dressing as the black Power Ranger, a bumble-bee and a Ninja Turtle. While, those options still exist, they now come with mini skirts and low-cut tops. I grew up in Minnesota where around October, the temperature begins to drop and trick-or-treaters need more clothing. Still, year after year I watched people continue to lose pieces from their costumes. I still do not understand how people did not lose fingers and toes from such freezing temperatures.

Personally, I always would try and find the costume that would allow me to wear the most clothing in an effort to keep warm. In California, people do not have to worry about the temperature so much, but that does not mean full clothing coverage should be optional.

When planning a costume for Halloween, the fun is in getting creative. We should want to create a fun or scary costume that people can either adore or be horribly frightened by and run away screaming. I love to see work put into costumes. It is easy to throw on a bikini and say you are a character from “Baywatch,” but it is more fun to put something great together that is reasonably appropriate and creative.

When I went to a Halloween costume party two years ago, I instantly knew I would not win for three reasons: about 20 other Katniss Everdeen’s showed up, my costume was showing only the skin on my face and hands, and more than half of the women at the party all wore the “sexy” version of the costume. I still enjoyed the party, but found it unfair that the winner only had to tie a few strings together, attach them to her body and pose, while amazing costumes that took time and hard work to put together received no attention.

Halloween will continue changing each year, but we can only remove so much clothing each year until everyone begins walking around naked. We do not need to show our skin to impress people with our costumes and we can still have a fun holiday by adding a few more layers. Let us keep the Halloween tradition fun, responsible and safe.