World Book Day 2018

I do love World Book Day - it can be a bit of a hassle coming up with a costume, but luckily these days the children have ideas of their own as to what they'd like to be! I insist that they dress up as an actual book character from a book that they've read, and preferably own. I also like to spend as little money as possible!

This year, Harry decided that he wanted to be George from George's Marvellous Medicine, which he has read several times and recently had been reading to Mia. 'Excellent' I thought! He already went as George once before at his old school, and you can't really think of a much easier costume, all that is required are normal clothes along with a bottle of medicine and a spoon. But with the weather being so cold this week the children were urged to dress appropriately for the temperatures, and inspired by his cousin dressing as a unicorn in her unicorn onesie I remembered the random wolf onesie that we bought years ago in the sales. It's a little tight on him now but he was desperate to wear it so I dug out my old Ladybird Red Riding Hood and he went along as the Wolf, he was lovely and snug.

My friend suggested Mia the Bridesmaid Fairy from the prolific Rainbow Magic series as a costume for Mia, having bought her the book for her birthday. Mia was thrilled at the suggestion, although the outfit did cause us a few arguments. She doesn't currently have a pink dress in her wardrobe, and the bad weather meant we had to cancel a planned shopping trip. I pulled out a lovely spotty pink T-shirt which she wanted to wear with white tights. I had to be a little strict and say that she couldn't go to school with her pants out on show, so we reluctantly compromised on some white shorts underneath to preserve her modesty. She refused to make any concession to the freezing temperatures apart from a little cardigan, so I packed her some warmer clothes in case she changed her mind once exposed to the outdoors at break time.

To accessories her costume I bought some cheap artificial roses from Hobbycraft to make her a little bouquet, some wide ribbon to sew a bow for around her chest, and I painted a thin stick silver for the wand. She refused a flower for her hair and she wouldn't wear her fairy wings either, but luckily she was very pleased with her costume and wore it proudly.

What did your children dress up as this year? I'm always on the look out for ideas!