Halloween doesn’t have to be a difficult day for kids in wheelchairs. I always loved being challenged to come up with a costume that incorporated, or dare I say, disguised Ben’s wheelchair. Kids are in chairs because it’s a necessity but that doesn’t mean they will ‘sit out’ (pun intended) at Halloween. There are some great costumes that will make use of the wheelchair.
When the trips were 2 years old, we went with a Sesame Street theme - Abby Cadaby, Elmo and of course .. Oscar the Grouch! Oscar provided an obvious way to use Ben’s chair: his trashcan. I built the can with a simple cardboard box, creasing it every few inches to give the appearance of ridges, and a can of silver spray paint. And he wore his custom-knitted Oscar hat from my mother-in-law. He was so cute!
And when they were three, I came up with the idea of an army soldier with a tank. My husband has been in the army for years, so naturally we had child army camos and the Gerlach name patch. I looked at various tank photos online and constructed it from cardboard boxes. Green, tan, white and black spray paint gave the appearance of camouflage. Cut out the star symbol, added spray painted paper plates for wheel, and attached it to the chair and he was raring to go!
These are just my two examples but I have seen so many great ways to create a creative costume for a child using a wheelchair, including school buses, pinball machines and slot machines. And always use Pinterest - it is a great resource for cool ideas!
I also built Ava a Lightning McQueen car out of cardboard - she was thrilled!
This smile says it all - I think he liked his costume!