How to Carve a Pumpkin

Carving a pumpkin with your children can be a lot of fun! Creating the perfect Jack-o-lantern with your young ones is sure to create some special Halloween memories that your whole family will treasure forever. Will your daughter or son decide to carve a huge pumpkin nose, crooked teeth and funny ears? Or will they let their creativity run loose and carve out an intricate design like a cat or a bat? Only time will tell, but this guide on How to Carve a Pumpkin for Halloween you will have the best jack-o-lantern on the block!

The first step to carving your pumpkin will be to buy a nice looking pumpkin from your local farmers market or grocery store. You can pick any size you want, some people prefer larger pumpkins or even baby ones. But remember that the smaller the pumpkin the more detailed and intricate your cutting will be. So if this is your first time carving a pumpkin, a medium sized pumpkin is recommended.

Next you will draw the outline of your pumpkin's facial features. If you want to have a typical Jack-0-Lantern design, then you will draw two eyes in the shape of triangles, a nose in the shape of an inverted triangle and a mouth made up on various sized teeth. You can use a black marker or any other type of pen that will write on your pumpkin easily. You will also need to draw an oval around the top of your pumpkin, because this is where we will be opening the pumpkin to remove the seeds.

Now that you've outlined your plan: it's time to get out your cutting knife and carve that beautiful pumpkin of yours into a ghoulish halloween jack-o-lantern! First we cut the circle at the top and we cut as deep as necessary to make sure we can remove the top part: a bit like a handle. Now you will take your hands and remove all of the pulp and seeds that you can reach from the inside on the pumpkin. This is going to be a messy process, but remember Halloween is about having fun and enjoying your time with your children! Now that you've gotten all of the seeds and pulp out, you can set these aside for use in some delicious pumpkin pie recipes later.

Now it's time to carve the facial features of your pumpkin. You will need a bit more accuracy with your cutting this time and you will need a big knife, which is why drawing a large pair of eyes, nose and mouth is helpful. Simply follow the lines you set out for yourself previously. This should leave you with some extra pumpkin bits to push gently out of the pumpkin itself, which you can discard.

The final touch which you should leave to Halloween night itself is to place a small votive candle inside of your pumpkin! Be sure to have the Jack-o-Lantern attended at all times when the candle is lit. Congratulations, you've just carved your first halloween pumpkin!