It’s that time of year again: when kids (and people who still feel young enough to imagine) dress up and

pretend to be…anything!

How many of you dressed up as ballerinas or dancers when you were children? (How many of you still dress up as dancers for Halloween?)

Statistics

Ballet dancers, gymnasts, and cheerleaders are always top choices for Halloween costumes. A recent article from Playthings (a publication on “The Business of Play”) revealed that ballerina dress-up clothes are still among the best-selling items in costume and toy stores.

Betsy Skaroff–design director for A Wish Come True, a manufacturer or children’s dress-up clothing and accessories –told Playthings, “Our best sellers continue to be tutus and dresses, with the accessories to go along with these.”

At specialty retailer Thinka Dinka, in Westfield, N.J., co-owner Connie Van Epps told Playthings that a $22 tutu is the store’s best-selling dress-up item. And, while superheroes and pop stars come and go, ballerinas stick around.

True, kids are in the market for things like light-up tutus, according to the article. But as far as dress-up goes, ballerinas hold onto the love of children (and the love of the parents and grandparents who buy those costumes).

I was glad to see that the author of an EHow article entitled “How to Create a Ballerina Costume,” reminds readers that “boys can be great ballet dancers too.” (Although, with tips like, “stand on one foot while saying ‘Trick or treat,’” this how-to article may be for the kid who has never seen a ballet dancer.)

What Have You Grown Up to Want to Grow Up to Be?

So, now that you are the dancer who children look up to, what do you dress up as? Will you celebrate Halloween as a dancer? Or do you put a twist on it, and trick-or-treat as an axe-murderer dancer or a ninja ballerina perhaps?

We want to see what what your Halloween costume will be! Send us a photo of your costume for this year. (If you have a great photo from last year, you can submit that one too.) We’ll feature the best photos on our site throughout October.

Images:

• ninjapoodles on Flickr