By Courtney Ingalls & Tamonda Griffiths
We’ve invited you to frightful Halloween haunts and parades that surely provided spooky inspiration for your holiday decorating. Now, it’s time to gather the little ones around the kitchen table and dig into your carefully selected pumpkins.
Whether they are big or small, tall or round, curvy or bumpy, bright orange or starch white, your pumpkin is ready to be transformed into a masterpiece fit for the spook-tacular season!
If you are looking for some new ideas, here are the perfect pumpkin carving and decorating ideas for kids of all ages.
Psst… Check out the 12 Best Halloween Drive Thru Displays Near NYC!
Non-Carving Ideas
Glitter Pumpkins
Want to make your pumpkin shine without glow-in-the-dark paint, tea lights or candlesticks? All you need is a little paste and a whole lot of glitter and sparkles! Your kids will love painting their pumpkins with glue before sprinkling their choice of glitter all over their once orange pumpkin.
Use fall or winter hues on a faux pumpkin so you can repurpose it for Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively. Use gold or silver to make your pumpkin look like a million bucks!
Or, write out Halloween messages like “Boo” or “Beware” in purple, green or black glitter to give trick-or-treaters a fright!
Spider Web Pumpkins
During the Halloween season, spider webs are used as a staple decoration, and now you and your kids can make a spider web on your pumpkins!
Grab some tape and create your own spider web on your pumpkin. Once the design is ready, paint over the tape with your favorite color and let dry. Finally peel off the tape and you will see the outline of your spider web!
Mummy Pumpkin
This is one of the easiest decorating ideas (and one of the cutest!). All you need is some googly eyes, glue, and toilet paper.
Wrap the toilet paper around the pumpkin and help your kids apply the glue to keep it in place. Once it’s dry your pumpkin mummy will be ready to display!
Confetti Pumpkins
This decoration idea results in a very colorful pumpkin. Grab your favorite colored tissue paper and help your kids make different sized circles. Now grab your pumpkin (a white pumpkin is better to see the different colors) and start using Mod Podge to stick them on.
Carving Ideas
Cookie Cutter Pumpkins
Cookie cutters don’t have to just be used for baking. Once your pumpkin is hallowed out, grab your favorite cutter and decide where you would like it to be placed.
Take a rubber mallet and have your kids help you hit the cutter into place. Take out the cutter and parents can use a knife to help go over the outline and then see your different shapes shine through.
Lollipop Pumpkin
Disguise lumps and spots on your pumpkin with lollipops! You can either drill some holes into your pumpkin or let your children poke holes into them using the lollipop sticks or wooden kebab skewers.
This Halloween decoration is a two-for-one deal, not only is it a creative use of your treats that gives your pumpkin the illusion of wacky hair, but it’s also a practical way to hand out candy all night long!
Polka-Dot Pumpkin Carving Idea
Using polka dots is always an easy design to put on any craft, and now you can carve them into your pumpkin. This design does require some assistance and supervision from parents.
You can either grab a drill and make circles into the pumpkin or you can draw them out and use a serrated knife.
Paw Patrol
Create your favorite Paw Patrol characters on your pumpkin this year. What makes this so easy is that you can use different character stencils. Simply print them out, tape them to the pumpkin and cut it out according to the lines.
