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Fascinating Leap Year Facts

February 16, 2012 in Special Occasions by Lara Burke

As you know, leap year occurs every four years. It is necessary in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year. We have compiled a list of interesting facts about Leap Year traditions, events and other tidbits.

Leap Year Events (not all leap years are listed because lets face it, not everything is that interesting):

  • 1504 – Christopher Columbus convinced used his knowledge of a lunar eclipse occurring on leap year to convince the native he had magical powers to predict or control the future and in turn convince them to provide him with supplies.
  • 1692 – Sarah Good & Tituba, an Indian servant, accused of being witches in Salem, MA
  • 1892 – St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.
  • 1940 – For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award. Gone with the Wind wins a total of 8 Oscars.
  • 1956 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces to the nation that he is running for a second term.
  • 1960 – The first Playboy club to feature Playboy Bunny waitresses opens in Chicago.
  • 1968 – The Beatles St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band wins a Grammy Award.
  • 1972 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization – South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
  • 1972 – Hank Aaron becomes the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to sign a $200,000 contract.
  • 1980 – Gordie Howe of the then Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
  • 1988 – South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town, South Africa.
  • 2004 – Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King wins all 11 Oscars for which is was nominated.

5 Fun Leap Year Facts

  1. People who are born on Leap Year are called leapers or leaplings.
  2. If you are born on Leap Year, you are automatically invited to be a member of The Honor society of Leap Year Day Babies.
  3. In Scotland it is considered bad luck to be born on Leap Year
  4. In Greece it is bad luck to marry on February 29th.
  5. Leap Year was named after an Archbishop Oswald of York who died on February 29, 992. It is also referred to as St. Oswald’s Day.

Leap Year’s Greatest Tradition

An old Irish legend that has been widely adopted throughout time says that Leap Year is the one day when a woman can propose marriage to a man. This was the premise of the 2010 movie Leap Year. By the way, ladies, if he refuses the proposal he must give you an expensive gift.

So there you have it. If you are born on a leap year or know someone who is, let us know and we will wish them a happy leap year birthday on February 29th, 2012.


Who Will Win the Oscar for The Best Costume?

February 10, 2012 in Uncategorized by Lara Burke

Everyone wants to know who will win the Oscar for Best Actor, Best Movie, Best Director and so on, but if you ask me, the costumes are the basis for everything. The costumes help to define the character and in turn, play a direct part in the way the role is played. The best costumes will show you whether the character is rich or poor, when the movie takes place, the occupations of the character, their mental state and so on. When the actor puts on his or her costume, they are transformed. Without them, a movie would be meaningless.

When you watch the Academy Awards, don’t get up to get a snack when the announce the Oscar for best costume design, but rather applaud them for the hard work, research and talent that goes into this very vital part of movie making. Now that I have you thinking about it, I bet you can think of dozens of movies that had amazing costumes.

My picks for The Best Movie Costumes of All Time:

  1. Marylin Monroe’s white dress in Seven Year Itch
  2. Holly Golightly’s black dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
  3. Everything in Marie Antoinett and Elizabeth
  4. All of Scarlet O’Hara’s dresses in Gone with the Wind
  5. The 50s costumes from Grease

Winners of the Academy Award for Best Costume Design from this century:

  • 2011 – Colleen Atwood for Alice in Wonderland
  • 2010 – Sandy Powell for The Young Victoria
  • 2009-  Michael O’Connor for The Duchess
  • 2008- Alexandra Byrne for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
  • 2007- Milena Canonero for Marie Antoinette
  • 2006 - Colleen Atwood for Memoirs of a Geisha
  • 2005- Sandy Powell for The Aviator
  • 2004- Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  • 2003- Colleen Atwood for Chicago
  • 2002- Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie for Moulin Rouge!
  • 2001- Janty Yates for Gladiator
  • 2000- Lindy Hemming for Topsy-Turvy

Of this year’s nominees, I’m betting on The Artist to win because I just love those Roaring 20s costumes. As far as picking an overall best picture winner, well that is just too close to call.  We’ll just have to wait and see.


Throw Your Daughter A Disney Princess Costume Party

February 1, 2012 in Special Occasions by Lara Burke

If your daughter has a birthday coming soon then a Disney Princess costume party just might be her wish come true. There are two ways you can do it. Firstly, invite all her little friends to come to the party dresses in their favorite Disney princess costumes. You may want to state on the invitation which character your daughter will be wearing so she can be the only one in that costume. The other way you can do it is by having a Disney princess theme and having adult friends dress up as the characters to take pictures with the girls and entertain them.  Either way you decide to go, you will need Disney costumes, paper goods, cake and party favors.

The Disney princesses include Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Tiana, Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Mulan and Pocahontas but you can also count Tinkerbell, Rapunzel, Alice in Wonderland and Minnie Mouse. There are several styles of each princess costume from which to choose on Costume SuperCenter for everyone from infants to girls and even women.  Accessories include tiaras, shoes and wigs. Wands are also available for each of the characters and make a wonderful party favor for each girl to bring home.

Disney party supplies can be found at any online or big box retail store. Disney princess themed cups, plates, napkins and decorations are readily available. Disney princess cakes are really easy. They can be as simple as a homemade cake that you decorate with small princess figures or as elaborate as a custom made cake like the one below.

The best things about a Disney princess costume party is that the girls will love every minute of it, the supplies are easy to find and the costumes are fabulous. It gives the children a fun opportunity to play dress up and celebrate the birthday girl in style.


Host a Little Girl’s Tea Party with Costumes

January 25, 2012 in Uncategorized by Lara Burke

Costume tea parties are a great way for little girls to learn social skills and manners while having fun role-playing as grown-ups. There is nothing cuter than a group of little girls dressed in fancy costumes with feather boas and little princess themed play heels sipping tea with their pinkies out.

With the enormous number of costumes and accessories available for girls, having children’s tea parties has become a business.  You can purchase a variety girls princess costumes, feather boas, gloves, tiaras, wigs, hats, dress-up jewelry, purses and anything else you can think of to get you started. Garage sales and thrift shops are the perfect place to find pieces of fancy, dainty china and serveware.

Your child will act as hostess of the party. This will teach her how to greet her guests when they arrive and how to thank them and say goodbye when they leave. As the parent, you should do the serving of tea and finger foods while coaching the girls in the art of conversation, if necessary. Here are some pointers for hosting a little girl’s tea party with costumes.

When Guests Arrive

Your child can greet her guest and invite them into a room where the dress-up clothes are displayed. With their moms help, they can change into their special tea party outfit and play until all the guests arrive.

What To Do First

There are a variety of things you can do. For example, let each girl “walk the runway” and show off their pretty costume. They can also play a game like musical chairs, do a craft, or play with dolls.

What to Serve

When it is time to invite the girls to the table have everything ready to serve.  We suggest serving decaffeinated tea such a green tea or mild herbal teas that are somewhere between warm and hot. Serve with milk and sugar cubes. Two basic tea sandwiches include peanut butter and jelly cut into shapes with assorted cookie cutters and cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches cut into triangles (no crust). Cookies should be served on fancy platters and include shortbread cookies, macaroons and small scones and muffins with lemon curd and jam. If it is a birthday party, a cake of any kind or cupcakes would be fine.

Mind your Manners

This is a great opportunity to learn the art of  “please and thank you” as well as learning table etiquette such as placing the napkin on their lap, offering food before passing it, asking to pass something out of arms reach, elbows off the table, etc. They will be dressed in frilly girl’s costumes which will help remind them to act in a lady-like manner.

Wrap it Up

After tea time, the girls can engage in free play time, or a variety of other activities until the party is over. If it is a birthday, you can open gifts, which is another opportunity for teaching etiquette.  15 minutes before the end time, costumes should be removed and placed back on hangers or set aside to be laundered. When each girl leaves the child hostess should be thanked for coming and give a party favor, if applicable.

You can also turn your tea party into a specific theme by offering Disney princess costumes, fairy costumes, animal costumes or what ever else you choose. What type of costume tea party would you have.


Words the Friends adds new life to the Scrabble Costume

January 19, 2012 in Uncategorized by Lara Burke

Words with Friends took off like a jet plane when Alec Baldwin was kicked off an American Airlines flight for playing the game. Our Scrabble costumes are going to take off too since this Words with Friends craze has made the app version of Scrabble one of the coolest games to play.

Shortly after the Alec Baldwin incident it was reported that Words with Friends jumped from 300,000 users to 5.5 Million.  At this writing, Words with Friends currently has 8,400,000 daily uses.

This year, Costume SuperCenter suspects the Scrabble costume will find new life and meaning with smartphone and online game enthusiasts. Thank you Zynga for creating Words with Friends. Perhaps now you will give us a Words With Friends Halloween costume that will rival our Angry Birds costumes, also inspired by popular game apps.

Some people will tell you that Words with Friends is just like Scrabble while die-hard Scrabble fans tend to differ. There are some differences in the layout of the board and the number of tiles but the scoring and rules are generally the same. No doubt, if you love Scrabble, a Words with Friends addiction is in your near future. If you love online games like Angry Birds, you must have discovered WWF by now. If not, what are you waiting for!

What are your thoughts about the Scrabble costume being worn by fans of Words With Friends?


Costumes and Diets Have Come a Long Way

January 9, 2012 in Uncategorized by Lara Burke

Halloween is a long way off but I want to buy a smaller size costume this year so I decided to hop on the New Year’s resolution bandwagon and join Weight Watchers. The reason I joined this program over the others is that I want to eat real food, not that pre-packaged, awful stuff. However, Weight Watchers was not always the super real food diet it is today. This of course got me thinking about how so many things have changed for the better over the years, including Halloween costumes.

For some reason, diet food from decades ago had to be gross concoctions that barely resemble food. Making it look interesting with fancy molds will not make anything taste better. Likewise, a plastic smock with a picture of a character and a molded plastic face make do not make for a good costume. We have smartened up over the years and now we demand the real deal.

Take a look at how costumes and diets have changed from from the 1970s to today. What were people thinking?

If things didn’t change to the way they are now, Halloween costume manufactures and the weight loss industry would both be out of business.

I want my costumes and my food to look like the real thing. Don’t settle for anything less for yourself.

If you have a picture of yourself from way back when wearing one of these awful vintage Halloween costumes, we’d love to see a picture of it. Share your comments with us here. You can also post your pictures to our Facebook Page.


V for Vendetta Mask Worn by Occupy Wall Street Protesters

January 4, 2012 in Historical Costumes by Lara Burke

The V for Vendetta mask has become a symbol of Occupy Wall Street. If you have wondered why you have seen so many pictures of Occupy Wall Street protesters wearing this creepy white mask, then you need to know its origins and how it came to be the mask worn by the vigilante in V for Vendetta.

The V For Vendetta is a comic and movie about a freedom fighter called “V” who wears a mask to hide his identity, and uses terrorist tactics to insight a revolt against the government.  The mask is based on the likeness of a man named Guy Fawkes who lived in the early 1600s and was part of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The plot involved a group of English Catholics who planned to assassinate King James, a protestant, by blowing up The House of Lords with gunpowder and restoring a Catholic Monarch to the throne. Fawkes was in charge of guarding the gunpowder. Authorities were tipped off and captured Fawkes. He was tortured until he broke but rather than be condemned to death, he took his own life.

The original Guy Fawkes mask is based on a design by artist David Lloyd and features a white face with a wide smile, a thin, upturned mustache from cheek to cheek and a thin pointed beard from the lower lip to the bottom of the chin.

Due to is origins and its use in the movie, the mask has come to represent protest in general. Today, the mask is often seen worn by “Occupy” protesters who disapprove of  the nation’s politicians and financial institutions. Wear the V for Vendetta Mask for Halloween along with the V for Vendetta costume, or with your clothes to portray an OWS protester. However, you can purchase the V for Vendetta Mask all year long in support of “Occupy” protests all over the country. You can purchase the mask at Costume SuperCenter for only $6.99


10 Unusual New Year’s Resolutions for 2012

December 28, 2011 in Uncategorized by Lara Burke

It is time to start thinking about your New Year’s Resolutions now that Christmas has come and gone and the Santa costumes are on packed away.  Instead of the same boring New Year’s resolutions that hardly anyone ever keeps I figured I’d try something different. So goodbye to all the New Year’s diets I started that went caput by Valentine’s Day and so-long to being more organized because that just makes me forget where I put everything. This year I’m going for an unusual New Year’s resolution that I might have a better chance of keeping. Some are humorous, some are thoughtful, and all are worth your consideration.

  1. I will break a bad habit by replacing it with another one.
  2. I will learn one useless fact a day and share it with my co-workers.
  3. I will do at least one thing that gets the response, “I can’t believe you just did that,” but in a good way.
  4. I will come up with a clever new response when someone sneezes to replace God bless you.
  5. Each month, I will try a food I’ve never had: liver, tripe, sweetbreads, fois gras…
  6. Take a picture of my child every day for a year and post a time lapse video on You Tube.
  7. Grow my hair and donate it to Locks of Love.
  8. Be a real life Fairy Godmother and do a few good deeds.
  9. I will not purchase anything with change for a year. I will use a new bill every time and save all of my change.
  10. Learn to roll my r’s mainly because I’d like to eventually learn a romance language and also just because it sounds so sexy.

If you have a suggestion for an off beat New Year’s Resolution let us know by posting a comment. From all of your friends at Costume Supercenter, have a happy and safe New Year.


10 Collector’s Edition Movie Costumes for Serious Collectors

December 20, 2011 in General Costumes by Lara Burke

If you are a fan of movie memorabilia,  or you refuse to settle for even a deluxe quality Halloween costume, you need to check out some of the available theatrical quality collector’s edition movie character costumes.  These are incomparable costumes in a class consistent with the costumes actually used on movie sets. All of the costumes are officially licensed, authentic and of a caliber that exceeds your expectations. We’re talking about Superheroes, Star Wars, Elvis, Transformers and more.

These are not your ordinary Halloween costumes. Collector’s Edition costumes range in price from $200 – $900 and are available through reputable costume companies such as Costume SuperCenter. If you are able to spare no expense, one of these costumes will be beyond compare for Halloween in addition to being the centerpiece of any movie memorabilia enthusiasts collection.

Here are our top 10 collector’s quality movie character costumes.

1. Darth Vader

2. Black Shadow  3. Trooper  4. Boba Fett and Stormtrooper costumes from Star Wars

5 and 6. Supreme Collectible Edition Batman and Robin

7. Collectible Superman Costume

8. Collectible Elvis Presley costume

9 and 10. Transformers Bumble Bee and Optimus Prime Collectors Edition costumes

Owning a movie character costume like any of these is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If music is more your style then the professional stage quality KISS costumes would be perfect for you. I though I’d tell you about them now so you can have the next ten months to save up for it.


The Origins of Christmas Stockings, Mistletoe and Santa Suits

December 13, 2011 in Holiday Costumes by Lara Burke

For as long as I’ve been aware, I have always known that, at Christmas time, we hang our stockings on the mantle, kiss under the mistletoe and that a man in a red and white fur suit comes down our chimney and gives us gifts. But why? These traditions come from folklore, some relatively recent and others over 1000 years old.  So, in case you are wondering, here are the origins of some of our most popular Christmas traditions.

Hanging Christmas Stockings – In the 3rd Century in the city of Myna, which is now part of Turkey, Bishop Nicholas was known as an extremely kind and generous man. He heard about a poor old man who feared he would die before saving enough money for a dowry for his daughters and wanted to help. On Christmas night when the daughters put their stockings on the mantle to dry by the fire, Bishop Nicholas anonymously threw gold coins down the chimney and they landed in the tockings giving the daughter enough money to marry.

Why Santa comes down the chimney – This may have stemmed form the story of the stockings; with St. Nick tossing coins down the chimney. Thinking logically, the chimney would be the only way for Santa to get inside a home way back when because doors and windows would be locked tight to keep out the cold. But remember, Santa is magical and if you don’t have a chimney, he can get in through something as small as a keyhole.

Kissing Under the Mistletoe – Mistletoe is an evergreen with berries. The tradition dates back to an ancient. Norse mythology. The ancient Scandinavians believed that if you encountered a foe while standing under mistletoe (which is a parasitic scrub that grows out of trees) they both had to lay down their arms and promise not harm to one another until the next day. The led to the tradition of kissing through the Norse myth of Baldur. When Baldur was born, his goddess mother made every living and inanimate object in the world promise not to harm Baldus. She forgot about the mistletoe. The god, Loki, was able to kill Baldur using a spear made from mistletoe. The gods eventually brought Baldur back to life and his mother declared mistletoe to be sacred, and from that point on, any two people who pass under the plant must kiss in celebration of the resurrection of her son.

Why Santa Wears a Red Santa Suit – Believe it or not, this is the newest of Christmas traditions. Santa’s look is the creation several artists. Thomas Nast made created the first images of Santa in 1881. He was recreated several times in print, including a cover on the Saturday Evening post by Norman Rockwell in 1920. Santa is perhaps the most commercial figure in advertising. In 1931 The Coca-Cola company wanted to increase its sales of soda in the winter and used Santa Claus (wearing a Santa Suit in their corporate colors, red and white) to create a campaign that not only sold lots of soda but also made the  popularity of Santa Claus stronger than ever. Generations later, Christmas would not be Christmas without children all over the world awaiting the arrival of old St. Nick in his distinctive Santa Suit.

There are also many bizarre Christmas traditions from around the world but these are the most common. If you celebrate an unusual holiday tradition, tell us about it.


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