Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Now that we stuffed ourselves silly with turkey and stuffing and so much more, we now have the Holiday Season to think about as in Christmas! Yes, Christmas does pop up early everywhere nowadays when it comes to decorating, gifts with Black Friday and Cyber Monday (I am so glad I stayed home and shopped online) but there is one thing people don’t include and that is cosplay!
If you guys have been keeping track with this blog you know we have press for a second year at Holiday Matsuri which is Orlando’s Christmas themed anime convention that is held in December. Not only we got to interview Josh Seth and Todd Habercorn last year, we did get to see a lot of holiday themed cosplay and did bring it all into our first Cosplay Gallery which I will link down below in case if you missed it during our coverage postings. I thought it would be fun to give you all tips in case you need something to wear if you were to go to this convention!
Tip 1: Glitter! Glitter! Glitter Everywhere! If you are doing anything holiday related, there is one thing that makes it fun and that is glitter! If you are going as one of the Sugar Rush characters from Wreck It Ralph like Princess Vanellopi or Tafetta then glitter is the thing to go with! You can get a lot of sparkling highlighters especially the holiday themed ones from Colour Pop and Mac for examples to give you a sparkly makeup look. There is also glitter eyeliner, glittery polish to give your characters a sparkly nail, which I am planning to do with my Itachi cosplay, and of course you can use craft glitter to create your own sparkling outfit. Whatever you do, don’t get that stuff all over your eyelids and another warning it will get everywhere! Even on your pets!
Tip 2: Tinsel Is Another Decoration! Another thing to consider to add on the holiday flare is using tinsel! As in, the stuff you tend to wrap around your trees in. Unless they are known as garlands but these tinsel wrap arounds would make it look like you went crazy with wrapping yourself as an anime character. Would be funny if a Tobi cosplayer from Naruto would have it or any other silly character but it is easy to find at any craft store or holiday store since some cities have it.
Tip 3: Wrap Props as Presents! We’ve seen this around before and I almost thought about doing it for my Soul Eater cosplay but due to a car accident the axe has to be rebuilt and there is always next year! Anyways, you can make your props to have Christmas bows or make them look like you are carrying presents, one good example to do is Snake from Metal Gear with a huge present wrapped box to look like you’re hiding as present. We did see it with some guys dressed as Elf on a Shelf last year and carried a present, which not sure if we got that as a pic.
Tip 4: Lights and Light Rigs Are Your Friends! Last year, I was a contestant during the Cosplay Runway contest which people wearing holiday themed costumes get to compete and saw people wearing tree-like costumes with lights and this brings me to the idea of using Christmas lights as decoration. We tend to find creative ways of using LED lights and do wire them to light up and giving your cosplay that light touch would make it even more fun. Heck, even seen a Cat Woman with a line of lights as her whip and a pair doing a Spawn cosplay where they had lights on one of them. Was it lights? Still, you can be creative with LED lights and as Christmas ones!
Tip 5: Adding Santa Hats, Reindeer Antler Headbands, and Anything Else Can Add A Holiday Touch! If you don’t want to go all the way with lights, tinsel, and glitter, there is always finding the simple headband with reindeer antlers or a Santa hat can be all you can work with. Plus, most of us cosplayers are on a budget when it comes to going to conventions and of course you can find a Dollar Tree if you are in the mood of a last minute Santa hat. Plus, you can customize them to your costume to match! Since I mentioned I will be Itachi this year due to how it froze during the convention in Orlando (I am not kidding! My teeth were chattering while I was Lucy on Night One!) I did pin a bell to show the Akatsuki thing since their hats in the anime and manaa have that signature bell. Speaking of Santa…
Tip 6: Make a Customized Santa Outfit! I had to mention this since we seen a few Bayoneta characters taking the suntan suit to their own liking. We tend to see a lot of Santa hats but cosplayers can get a little creative by making Santa outfits for whoever they cosplay as. If I would, I would’ve had Lucy as a Christmas Elf and still carry my keys! Anyways, there are also Lolita dresses that take on the Christmas theme and cosplayers can use that as a nice base to use for whatever they want to cosplay as and add the Santa hat added to their character. Hoping we see some customized Santa costumes to go with whatever character that we may take pictures of for this year’s Cosplay Gallery.
Tip 7: Christmas Jewelry Would Add Some Pop! There is one thing that can be included with a lot of cosplay even if it requires earrings and that is using Christmas themed ones like ornaments, Santa hats, or even snowflakes! Jewelry with these elements would give you that holiday flare if you don’t want to go all out.
Tip 8: Hand Out Candy Canes! I seen this with a few people, even a Spawn cosplayer I met did this and that is giving out candy canes or any other candy that would have a holiday spin! A lot of convention goers do bring their kids and there are panels when things do get given out, the ye old candy cane for the holiday plus would put a lot of people in a really good spirit and it does feel good to give thme out. If you can’t find room to carry them like in a huge santa sack, you can find the mini candy canes to attach to any business cards if you are running a booth or in Artist’s Alley!
Well, that is about it for this post! Hope these tips will help you and I will be linking you guys to our Cosplay Gallery from last year’s Matsuri where we did catch some of these holiday themed costumes in the mix of many more! Also, don’t forget to hit Amazon and Barnes & Noble when Cyber Monday rolls around to get my book! The Blind Perspective: Convention Stories From the Dark is still therefrom the Dark>find! Please pick it up!
What is next? I will be doing a last minute Matsuri info post in case if you guys have any questions unanswered! Of course December coming around would not be complete with my holiday haul, might do a video for that, all the coverage from Holiday Matsuri 2016, my Favorites of November and December, and the Bests and Worsts of 2016! I think people want to read that. So stay tuned for all that in December!
Nerdy Shique Universe 