One of the funny things about Halloween in New York, where so many adults dress up for the holiday, is that one is always a little uncertain when it comes to deciding who is–and isn’t–in costume. This year, the feeling was compounded by the fact that many people starting wearing their costumes around town on Friday; Halloween’s falling on a Sunday meant that the holiday sort of morphed into a three-day-affair.

On past Halloweens, we’ve walked over to the West Village for people-watching, parade-glimpsing, and dinner at Pearl Street Oyster Bar. Pearl is closed on Sundays, so we had to alter our plans slightly this year. We still walked around the West Village–admiring the seasonal window displays and pointing out cute kids trick-or-treating from Marc Jacobs to Jack Spade along Bleeker–but this year we crossed back east before the parade began and found that the best costumes were on display around the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 8th Street. We stopped for a while (in the cold–brrrrr!), and admired Snooki(s), the Toy Story ensemble, sexy crayolas, grim reapers, jellyfish, and many others who passed by. A few would call out “Sherlock!” or “Watson, I presume,” and we posed for some pictures–which we appreciated. I always like the themed families; this year my favorite was a couple of parents dressed as bananas, with their monkey in a stroller.

Our Pearl Street alternative was Double Crown, a restaurant on the Bowery conceived by AvroKO (the same folks behind Public); it has an impressive nine-course menu of Brittain-meets-East, post-colonial fare offered for $35 on Sundays. Everything was delicious, and definitely merits repeating.

What were your favorite costumes this year?