There are few living rooms you’ll walk into before Halloween when an entire family are holding their heads in their hands.
Fewer still will have Lego blocks as their bodies, mechanical arms and giant, plastic hands with no fingers.
Suffice to say, even Dionne McFie’s best friends think she’s a sandwich or two short of a picnic.
But when Halloween rolls around, everyone close to McFie knows where to go to borrow one of her spectacular, homemade costumes.
Every fall season, the Steveston mom-of-two churns out expertly crafted outfits for herself and her family, wowing the neighbourhood that eagerly anticipates what’s coming out of her house on Oct. 31.
It’s a fun-filled, labour of love for all things Halloween that basically consumes her life from August right through to the big day itself.
And it’s a passion that has led to the McFies monopolizing the first prize at the Steveston Insider Halloween Costume Contest year in, year out, with elaborate, themed creations including The Muppets, Despicable Me and this year, The Lego Movie.
“We’ve won it at least four or five times I think, I’m not too sure,” said McFie from her Georgia Street home, which is smothered from top to bottom on the outside with spooky animatronics and inflatables.
“But I don’t do it to win it, I just love dressing up and getting a nice picture taken of us at the contest.
“People don’t seem to be as crazy as me when it comes to making costumes and it’s often cheaper to actually buy the costumes. But the ones that are homemade are the ones that tend to come in first and second.
“People come to us to borrow the costumes all the time. But they do think I’m a bit crazy for the amount of hours I spend on them. ‘You know you can buy them,’ they generally say.
“Everyone in the world could turn around and say Halloween was over, but I’d still make the costumes, just for the fun of dressing up.”
McFie reckons her secret to success at the contest is the hours of labour she puts in, which starts in August, after she picks the theme, along with daughter Hayley, 13, and son Holt, 9, before moving onto the selection of fabrics and materials and finally the actual construction in late September and October.
“I have counted it up before; but if I were to put myself into a room and lock everything out, I could probably get it done in a couple of days,” she said.
“It’s hard to calculate the total hours, I’d say at least 12 hours for each costume, maybe more. I’ve been told I’m a bit insane with my obsession with Halloween.”
Carolynne Palla, publisher of the Steveston Insider, judges the costume contest, which has been running since 2008, with the exception of last year.
“I’m looking for people that are original and when you look at them, you go, ‘wow.’ It’s not that hard and you usually know pretty quickly who the best few are,” said Palla, who often hands out about five prizes and last time had around 120 photos to judge, such is the popularity of the contest.
Meanwhile, McFie — who will have carved around 35 pumpkins by Saturday — puts her emotional investment into the Halloween season down to her mom, who, ironically, was alien to the concept of making costumes.
“I remember my mom was not very crafty and from an early age I had to figure out my own costumes,” she said.
“From about 10 or 11, I remember making my own costumes, a scarecrow I think, with old potato sacks and straw, when I quickly realized that my mom wasn’t going to help me.”
Last year’s theme from the McFie household was The Muppets, with Hayley as Miss Piggy, Holt, who attends Lord Byng elementary, as Animal, McFie as Kermit and her husband, Scott, as Beaker.
“Our teenager still loves Halloween, but it’s her first year at high school (McMath) and she’s working out if it’s still cool to dress up or not,” said McFie.
“My husband never dressed up for Halloween before he married me and he had to be persuaded to do it for the kids.
“But the deal is he dresses up every other year. This year, he’s not, but I know he’s going to regret it as he will feel left out.”
“We usually have friends come over to see the house and to see the costumes,” McFie said of the family’s plans for Halloween itself on Saturday.
“We will be going out in the village in the afternoon for the trick or treat event and, obviously, take part in the costume contest.”
This year’s contest will be at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery on Fourth Avenue, from 1-3 p.m. and will be photographed by Sandra Steier.
All photos will be entered into the contest and published online. Winners will receive a prize and have their photo in the Dec. 1 issue of the Steveston Insider.
