Children love Halloween, they love dressing up as ghosts and witches and trying to scare the pants out of everyone they meet and as a parent of three, I should get an Oscar nomination for my acting, I have got the terrified look down pat not just for pretending to my own kids that I am scared but all of the children in my neighborhood must think that I am a complete and utter wimp.

I love Halloween, it brings out the best in people and I have a lot of fun with my Children and their friends even though they all think I am a scaredy cat.

Children love trick or treating and dressing up for the occasion and this year will be no exception, Television and film have a major influence on the costumes that children want to wear and that is reflected again this year as Television Characters are prominent on the list of best selling costumes this year.

This years Girls are heavily influenced by television with four out of the top five selling costumes coming from their favourite TV shows, which leads us nicely to our list.

Number 5

On this years top selling girls costumes list, High School Musical and High School Musical 2 have given girls a new Heroine to look up to and aspire to be, Gabriella is a big favourite amongst girls of all ages and the Gabriella costumes are flying off the shelves.

Number 4

Hannah Montanna, was a hit last Halloween and the costumes are still selling like hot cakes this year hence the number 4 position, this T.V character is a popular figure for girls from 4-16 and I am sure this costume will be featured in the top 5 next year.

Number 3

Going away from T.V for this one the little Princess costume, has always been popular amongst younger girls and at number 3 this year is no exception.

Number 2

Back to television and surprisingly a lot of girls this year want to be a male character this character is yellow square wears brown shorts and lives in a pineapple under the see, yes it's Sponge bob girls are snapping up these costumes for Halloween this year. or is it sponge babe square skirt?

Number 1

From Television again and selling out as soon as they hit the shelves is the JoJo's Circus Costume, this costume is hot hot hot this year and it is getting more and more difficult for suppliers to keep up with the demand for them.

Boys Costumes are also strongly influenced by television programmes this year,with one cartoon character taking 3 of the top 5 places, and the other 2 places also being TV characters boys are easily pleased this year.

Number 5

The Incredibles cartoons and movies are popular with most boys and girls and a lot of boys this year will dress up as Dash, this costume is popular with boys from aged 4 to aged 10.

Number 4

Is the first of the boys costumes to come from the popular cartoon Ben10, The Ben Tennison costume means that boys can dress up like their hero this year, maybe they will see off a couple of aliens as they go trick or treating this year.

There is an added bonus with the ben10 costume, Without the sneakers the costume becomes a pair of pyjama's.

Number 3

This costume although not from television, comes from one of the most popular films this year Wall-E The lovable robot is now available as a Halloween costume and it is just as popular as the movie itself.

Number 2

Back to the Ben10 cartoon for this favoured boys costume, Heatblast isn't only a favorite character on the cartoon but pardon the pun the costume is also hot hot hot.

Number 1

As the most popular character from the Ben10 series it comes as no surprise that it is also the best selling halloween costume this year, Four Arms is the costume most boys want to wear this year.

Now that we have the childrens costumes picked out for halloween we can concentrate on our own click here to find the most wanted Adult Halloween costumes for 2008