As I write this, my mum friend and MadeForMums colleague Magda is putting together a costume for World Book Day. She's made a papier-mâché Gruffalo mask and it is, simply put, amazing: have a look at the video step-by-step she made.

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Will I be following suit? In a word, no.

I asked my 5-year-old daughter a couple of weeks ago if she'd had any thoughts on who she wanted to go as on World Book Day and, without missing a beat, she said Snow White.

Hurrah!

I know we totally have a Snow White dress somewhere in the house, so WBD is sorted, with no arts and crafts faff required.

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Perhaps I seem like a party-pooping stick in the mud on this topic; it's just, we've been burnt before and I don't want it to happen again.

You see, it was around 11.30pm the night before World Book Day last year that my crafty husband (not me) found himself finishing off the last of the many little pirate accessories for our daughter's costume – as she'd said she wanted to go as a girl pirate from the Night Pirates.

Cue 7.45am the next morning and she decided she wanted to go as the witch from Room On The Broom.

The painstakingly made pirate cutlass and telescope got left discarded on the sofa as she opted instead for a witch's cloak and hat.

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Will I get stung like that again? No way!

I'm clinging to the Snow White request for dear life as it means we're all ready to go with not a glue gun in sight.

The year before last was Elsa – and, as there is a Frozen book (it came after the movie), I went with that too.

But is letting your little one dress as a Disney princess taking the easy way out? I know from the MadeForMums Top Testers Club community that some parents reckon so.

"It's a cop out... I mean there are so many books in the world!" says Pearl S.

And Alan S agrees: "Yup – a cop out."

But there are some who agree with me: "Most children's characters are in books now," says Clare S, "so let children dress up as the character they want to. Doesn't matter if the character is not in a well known book: let them be different!"

Alexandra G agrees: "My daughter's preschool is joining in. She will be in whatever outfit she wants to go in! If that's Anna or Elsa, so be it! There aren't that many well known books for that age that aren't also Disney stories."

And Angela H had this to say: "Costumes can be expensive and there are bigger things in life to worry about.

"I quite often feel a lot of pressure to remember all the different dress-up days at school: red day for Comic Relief; superheroes day; Victorian day, non-uniform days... The list is endless!"

Well, I reckon Angela's hit the nail on the head here about all the different dress-up days.

Just 2 weeks ago, I forked out £15 for a Victorian nurse's outfit, so my little one could dress up as Florence Nightingale. Don't even ask me what 'day' that was!

My husband might have made the Florence outfit, had he been around, but he's been working away for 7 weeks and I've been doing a full-time job and looking after our daughter alone, so I knew I wasn't going to get around to making it – and, even if I had, it would have been rubbish.

Maybe next year, I'l get around to putting in a bit more effort. I might even check out Magda's Gruffalo make and do. But then again...

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Tara BreathnachContent Editor and Social Media Producer

Tara is mum to 1 daughter, Bodhi Rae, and has worked as Content Editor and Social Media Producer at MadeForMums since 2015

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