• Octopus-themed parade floats can be as colorful as any other float.Plastic Octopus image by pognyc from Fotolia.com
  
  Parade floats are colorfully decorated pieces of mobile art. You can use any theme or style for the float, even octopuses. The decorative pieces cover a flatbed or small trailer so that a vehicle can haul it through the parade. The octopus theme can incorporate a childlike, horror, puppet or simple style.
  
  

Kids Octopus Float

• It may require a ton of candy, but a kid's candy octopus float is a cheerful theme. A large, clear plastic bag filled with individually wrapped candy forms the colorful octopus head. Long, clear, cylinder plastic bags filled with candy form each of the octopus's eight arms. The over-sized octopus sits on a small trailer, covering it completely with the arms almost hanging to the ground.
  
  People wearing octopus costumes can walk along side the parade float and hand out salt-water taffy to help keep crowds excited. You can destroy the octopus at the end of the parade and share the candy with the crowds, or you can auction off the candy octopus to help cover the cost of float supplies.
  
  

Horror Octopus Float

• Add a little terror to your parade float design with an "evil" octopus theme. Blood red plastic covers the large trailer bed to create a bloody style. Swags of the red plastic hang from the sides of the trailer to provide a blood-drop appearance. Scattered plastic body parts, such as bloody hearts and skeleton feet, decorate the trailer for a horror-movie accent.
  
  A large plastic octopus with "evil" red eyes sits on the middle of the trailer as the base for the design. Two long and thick octopus arms sweep upward and look as if they're grabbing onto the vehicle hauling the float. Four arms flail in the air as if they're reaching for the crowd. The remaining two arms rest on the ground for stability.
  
  

Puppet Octopus Float

• Consider creating a giant octopus puppet with moving legs for an amusing parade float. The giant, colorful octopus head with wiggly eyes and a cartoon face covers the entire trailer to form the puppet base. Eight thick and long arms stick out from under the octopus head to provide parts big enough for movement. The end of each octopus arm attaches to a stick held by a person in an octopus costume. As the stick moves up, down and side-to-side, so does the specific octopus arm.
  
  

Simple Octopus Float

• A small hay trailer and decorations combine for a simple parade float with a cartoon look. Sandy material and tissue paper covers the trailer for an overall "ocean floor" appearance. Cardboard coral, tropical fish and seaweed sticking up from the sand provide colorful decorations. A large, painted, paper-maché octopus with a cartoon face sits in the middle of the float as the main decoration.