While each Yom Tov comes with its own host of customs, foods, and festivities, Purim affords people of all ages the opportunity to unleash their creativity. From planning the best mishloach manos to plotting the best shtick, getting ready for Purim is a whirlwind of non-stop activity. But with all the excitement comes a bit of stress: how to decide on a costume, where to get it, and how to tie it into the chag. I decided to ask people from the community who are champion costumers for their wisdom and input.
The Bulka family invests time every year in coming up with a theme that ties together their mishloach manos and their costumes. They started with having everyone just wear matching outfits. Their first “themed” Purim was Winnie the Pooh: their two-year-old son was Pooh, their newborn daughter was Piglet, and Dad was Tigger. Now, according to Mrs. Haviva Bulka, “we make or buy costumes or go to the costume gemach. We include a picture in our shalach manos package of our family dressed up, so that whoever we miss during our delivery can see us.”
I think that last bit of advice is something I might be adopting this year.
The Gross family also dresses up according to a theme, which revolves around a pasuk from the Megillah, and they tie it in to their mishloach manos. “A month before Purim we still have no idea what to do, so we pull out the Megillah and look for puns,” Nossi Gross told me. “Last year my wife thought of bais, as in bais Hashem and bais Hamelech. So we tied it in to baseball and wrote a whole poem filled with baseball puns. The year before that, my son-in-law thought of connecting “haya” to karate, and we dressed in karate uniforms.”
The Cohens* decided one year to dress up as Mr. Potato Head people. They made costumes for all the kids from scratch after looking online for inspiration. “It took longer than we expected, but it was fun to do,” Rabbi Cohen said. “We used cardboard for the bodies and then a lot of crumpled newspaper, felt, and hot glue to make the features. It wasn’t the easiest, but the kids were so excited, and the pictures were great!” They showed me the pictures and I was amazed by how professional the costumes looked.
I asked high school student Malka M* how she decides on a perfect costume. “When I was little, my father would bring me outfits he found during his business trips. Over the years, I’ve been a geisha in an authentic Japanese kimono, a young girl from India in a beautiful sari and a red bindi on my forehead, and an Amish farm girl in an outfit we bought in Lancaster. Once I got older, I wanted to dress up as something that really excited me. My favorite costume was dressing up as a spy.”
From a lineup of Waldo clones, UPS deliverymen, and Hatzalah wannabes, the ideas range from cute to super clever. While some costumes are Party City or Oriental Trading ensembles, others are put together with a bit of imagination. One year, the Muller* family was all decked out for a day at the beach. They ran around in bathrobes and goggles with towels draped around their shoulders while delivering shalach manos. Cute, simple, effective.
Dressing up for Purim is more than just a silly way to get festive. It ties in directly with the Purim story and how Hashem was hidden in plain sight. It’s important to remember the reason we’re dressing up. I asked Malka what she feels about the connection between dressing up and the essence of Purim. “Well, more than any other Yom Tov, Purim relates directly to our current situation in galus,” she says. “Hashem was hidden then, and the only way we see He’s there in the Megillah is through hashgacha pratis. So, too, today, Hashem is hidden in plain sight, and we need to train ourselves to see the hashgacha in our lives, to see Hashem’s hidden hand in everything that happens. When we dress up, it is important to remember why we’re doing this.”
Whether you find your costume in a gemach, online, or in a foreign country, or whether you make it yourself from scratch, may you fully experience all the revealed good that is available to us on Purim. Have a freilichen Purim!
* a pseudonym
