Change of scene for Fancy Dress Box

The popular local children’s Fancy Dress Box has moved venue, and there is a new face at the helm.

Nursery owner Elizabeth Skinner saw a social media post from Dussindale resident Tracey Cooper, who has been running the Fancy Dress Box from home since 2023, asking for someone to take over the initiative due to family commitments. She offered to take the free-to-use service to her Lime Tree Day Nursery, at Fitzmaurice Park in Thorpe.

SERVICE WITH A SMILE: Nursery owner Elizabeth Skinner and manager Alice Howes.

“I had always thought the Fancy Dress Box was a fantastic idea. There is so much pressure on parents and carers to purchase expensive fancy dress items throughout the year for events such as World Book Day, Halloween, Nativities and historical days at school, so the Fancy Dress Box is a really valuable community asset,” said Elizabeth, a Thorpe St Andrew town councillor.

Parents and carers can choose from hundreds of costumes and accessories, in all sizes from baby to teen, and borrow these free of charge. With new fancy dress costumes costing on average between £10 and £20, this has been a great help to families during the current cost of living crisis.

“The nursery is thrilled to be able to help continue Tracey’s fantastic work by taking over the Fancy Dress Box. We thought the nursery would be a perfect place to run the enterprise from as we have 70 local families who attend the nursery each week, and there are also many more families who regularly visit the park, which is literally on our doorstep. For those who are coming from further afield, there is also parking right outside the nursery.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to the members of the local community who have been extremely supportive of the Fancy Dress Box since it opened, providing costumes, accessories, hangers and clothing rails. Claire Jones, AKA The Darning Queen (Harvey Lane), has very kindly repaired many of the costumes free of charge, and Dawn’s New Horizon Charity Shop (Cornet Avenue, Sprowston) regularly provide the Fancy Dress Box with kind donations.”

She thanked Tracey for the many hours of hard work she put into setting up and running the Fancy Dress Box and said the nursery is committed to building on her amazing work.

The Fancy Dress Box ‘lending library’ is free to use, parents and carers just need to provide a small deposit of £5 on collection which is returned when the item is brought back. There are photos of all the fancy dress items available to borrow on the Facebook page Dussindale Children’s Fancy Dress Box, and to arrange collection you can email the nursery at Fancydressbox@hotmail.com or send them a message via their Facebook page www.facebook.com/LimeTreeNursery.

HAPPY CHARACTERS: Children enjoy wearing the outfits.