Our outfits for World Book Day 2017

My children have always loved dressing up, so World Book Day to them is a pretty exciting thing – being able to go to school looking like your favourite character is a cool thing to do when you’re seven and three.

I know it’s not universally loved as it can cause stress among parents trying to find the right costumes for their little ones, battling between what their kids want to dress up as and what you know you can actually make or buy from the supermarket!

I’ve been there; the first year Sam took part he wanted to be the Cat in the Hat, and we spent a weekend – or I spent a weekend – crafting a huge stripy top hat out of cardboard. I mean I love faffing with that sort of thing and he did look amazing, so it was worth the effort, but to do that every year? Well realistically that’s just not going to happen.

The following year he wanted to be Puss In Boots, a costume which wasn’t an easy one to buy so we managed to cobble one together with an old vampire cape, a new hat and a pair of black wellies.

This year we were offered some costumes from the lovely people at Party Delights – who knew they did fancy dress as well as party decorations? We had a look through and Sam chose this Dennis the Menace outfit, complete with rather scary mask, and Flo went for the prettiest she could find, a flower maiden.

Although strictly speaking we don’t have a book about a flower maiden, we have plenty of books about princesses and fairies which I know is stereotypical, but they are always her favourites.

In the pictures she’s reading one of my fave books, an old Ladybird copy of The Princess and The Pea. I think the sleeves on this lavish purple dress look a bit like the princess’s in this story, so we went with it.

Sam absolutely loves The Beano and reads this vintage (cough, 1986) annual most nights. He loves Roger the Dodger (same name as his dad, obvs), and Gnasher. We’ve had loads of fun with these costumes already, as Sam has been scaring Flo with the Dennis mask and chasing her round the house. Not a quiet pastime! Sadly his school didn’t ask the kids to dress up this year but he will definitely get his use out of this at home.

Flo, on the other hand, will be skipping into school in her new dress on a slightly belated date next week.

World Book Day – love it or hate it, the kids love it, so let it stay!

x Julia