To dress up, or not dress up...that is the question!

According to the bible ( or as some of you may know it, wikipedia) 'Dress Up is a game engaged in mainly by children...it helps strengthen their imagination and often resembles who they'd like to be.'
The act of dressing up surely is a puzzling one and the fact that it's such an ingrained cultural past time has me scratching my head even more...
Are we trying to re-live our childhood through doing this? Does it 'spice' up the mundane regularity of partying with old friends? Or does it...like wikipedia suggests, ignite our creativity and feed our tired imagination? I really can't decide.
Putting on a fancy dress sure gets me in the mood to dance, and putting on an outrageous hat does provoke a certain flair and cheek, but having to turn up with everyone else dressed as an 'animal', a 'zombie' or a 'superhero' really does little to excite me.
However I'm wary of parading around this view. ‘Loosen up a little', 'get amongst it' and 'put on this batman cape' you'll tell me, but truth is, these days at least, I'm just not that into it.
Maybe I've been to too many parties where everyone stands around looking at their 'effort,' perhaps I've always made to much of one ... or maybe I'm just a bit of a prude who doesn't like getting out of their ' zone.' Who knows?
To dress up, or not dress up.... I'm totally and utterly confused.