As children, part of being a kid is imaginative playtime and dress up.  We all had our childlike dreams and fantasies that we liked to use during trips through our imagination.  We envisioned heroes, larger than life characters as well as glitzy superstars.  Most of the time, when we grow up, we are forced to leave our childhood dreams dormant somewhere in the back of our minds.  For Halloween, perhaps it’s time to dust off some of those old childhood memories and recreate those fantasies as a perfect Halloween costume that brings back a little of your inner child.  Here’s our list of the Top 10 Halloween costumes for 2011 that will bring back some of your favorite childhood fantasies!

Superheroes-There probably isn’t a kid alive that hasn’t played “superhero” at one point or another in his/her life.  With so many great and powerful characters to choose from, it will be very easy to find one that fits into the superhero mold that you imagined when you were a child.  Caped and flying through the air, using superhuman strength and powers, scaling walls with ease and overcoming evil at every possible turn is just plain cool, not to mention fun.  What’s not to love about being a superhero? 

Rock Stars-With air guitar in hand, many of us as children found our selves deep in the fantasy of being a real Rock Star.  We envisioned being up on a stage, rocking out with fabulously loud music blaring out of huge amps, hungry, screaming fans in the audience and a stage nearly set afire with cool pyrotechnics.  Rock Stars seemed to live a life of perfect fantasy and more than a few of us wanted to be one.  Perhaps many of us still do.

Firemen or Policemen-Considered by many to be the ultimate local heroes, most of us as children played games like cops and robbers, where good always prevailed over evil and the bad guys were hauled away into a pretend jail.  Children often fantasize about being firefighters as well—driving that big red truck with the siren a-blazing as it roars down the street.  Performing rescue operations was all in day’s work for the brave firefighter, no wonder it’s a favorite pretend imaginative character for kids.

Military Personnel-Participating in a pretend battle was a favorite childhood pastime for many of us.  We’d lurk in the bushes with our toy machine guns and wait for our enemy (the neighbor kids) to come by so we could ambush them and attack.  Dressing in camouflage or other military regalia is the perfect way to recreate the childhood version of war games and will also pay homage to those who serve in the armed forces today.

Pop Star-Many of us have latent fantasies about being various pop stars.  When I was a teenager, I envisioned myself as Blondie, sexily crooning the likes of ‘Heart of Glass’ and ‘One Way or Another’.  My Pop Star dreams fell a little short and yours may have too, but recreating a costume look based on Madonna or Michael Jackson may be the perfect way to get this Pop Star dream completely out of your system once and for all. 

Princess-Nearly every little girl goes through her ‘princess’ phase. Dressed in appropriate royal attire from tiaras down to glass slippers, her regal and elegant appearance brought handsome men to her in droves.  Well, that was the theory anyway.  Princesses often found themselves in dire circumstances that required some handsome hottie to come by and do the rescuing.  Hey, what can I say, even little girls are smart and I guess we all learned young what worked.  Being a princess is a sweet gig and it’s no wonder why many of us wanted to be one if only in our imaginations.

TV or Movie Star-Without too much fanfare, I will confess to a wicked obsession with wanting to become Marcia Brady from The Brady Bunch.  She was TV’s “it” girl when I was very young and if I could have been her, even for a day, I gladly would have.  Many of us continue to have TV and movie icons from our younger days that are still inside of us, waiting to come out.  You’d be amazed at how many of these looks can be recreated easily with appropriate and accurate costumes.  Be still my heart! 

Astronaut or Pilot-These guys are so cool it’s unreal.  Many of us can remember watching the Apollo missions on TV and over the years many Shuttle launchings have been seen as well.  Astronauts bravely leave this world and explore territory that is foreign and unfamiliar to us poor earthbound folks.  Traveling into space is a fantasy that many of us have had.  Pilots as well, especially military pilots such as those from the movie Top Gun, are crazy-brave and fearless.  Astronauts and Pilots are an out of this world costume idea!

Cheerleader- Beautiful, sexy and popular, many girls fantasize about being a cheerleader.  Little girls do dance routines, cartwheels and flips in their yards as they dream about one day cheering their team onto victory while their pom poms flip about overhead.  From the super sexy professional sports team cheerleaders (Can you say Dallas Cowboys?) to the more traditional cheer girls found at your ol’ alma mater, the cheerleader is a popular childhood dream that might be fun to re-live.  A little bizarre, but definitely totally hilarious, grown men have been known to dress up as cheerleaders, too. 

Sports Star-Many of us wannabe athletes dreamt of one day making it big as a sports superstar.  Football, basketball, baseball, hockey—we fantasized about making that clutch winning score right at the buzzer as the crowd goes completely wild!  Recreating a sports look to bring out your inner athlete is a great way to relive those childhood fantasies and bring them to life, at least for the night.  Even if you are a non-athlete you can always be the ultimate sports power figure—the referee.

Halloween is a great time to get back in touch with the characters you fantasized about being as a child and become them temporarily on Halloween.  Real life gets in the way of much of what we dreamed about as children.  Get back in touch with those memories and good times this Halloween with an appropriate costume straight out of your childhood memory banks.