I'm kind of Halloween obsessed. When I was a little kid my parents used to throw Halloween costume parties that were incredible -- the outfits looked like they were for a TV show... I mean, really incredible. The year that the California raisins were a hit, we had a houseful of grown-ups wearing trashbags and purple face paint. And my favorite was a couple that came as McDonald's french fries -- they had giant foam fries tied around their waist that went almost up to the ceiling!

My mother would have been mortified to see us buy a "costume in a bag" from a store. She's an incredible seamstress and would sew each of our costumes by hand. She's an artist so she was able to come up with some really amazing costumes! Now that I'm older (and she won't make them for me anymore, lol) I love going to the stores to see what everyone's wearing. Even though we still have almost 2 months until Halloween, here's what stores say are selling out already:

• LADY GAGA & JO CALDERONE. The most-sold wig already is that of the Lady Gaga VMA's Jo Calderone. Or, for those of us that grew up in the 80s -- Ralph Machio in the Karate Kid wigs. Lady Gaga's male alter-ego is supposedly going to be one of the hottest of the year. Even bigger as a couple's costume -- one as Jo and one as female Gaga.

• THE SMURFS. La la la la la la.... They're cute, blue and had a huge movie out this year. Just remember that blue paint washes off easier at the end of the night than it does the next morning... when you're also washing your sheets and anything else you touched.

• AMY WINEHOUSE.  Almost any version of Amy Winehouse is going to be huge (so stock up on your beehive wig now, because stores say they are going fast) but this year's version has her in zombie make-up. (PS: I dressed my intern Barbie up to be Amy Winehouse the year she won her Grammys. Some advice -- give yourself at least an hour for fake tattoo'ing  if you want them to be exact.) I think it would be cooler to complete your dead rockstar set with a "27 Club" group costume: Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain & Brian Jones. 

What are you gonna be this year?

Melissa Chase is an on-air personality for 103.7  the River in Richmond, Va. Read her blog.