How to carve a pumpkin

I have been carving pumpkins forever.  I’m pretty sure I had a carving tool in the womb to make my mom into a Jack-o-lantern. Uhm…ok…this got real weird real fast.

Point is, it’s been a family tradition since I don’t remember when.  I thought everybody did it, but alas this does not seem to be a big tradition in California.

Jonathan had no idea where to even begin!

What you need to begin:
-a fairly large pumpkin with the all-important stem
-a sharpie or other thick pen
-one of those cheap carving tools.  They will make the whole process a
million times smoother.
-a big spoon
-a sharp knife
-newspaper (or improvise like us with some bubble wrap)

 

 

 

 

 

The Steps:

Step 1: Draw your design on the pumpkin.  (I like to make mine fairly simple, but you can make it as intricate as you’d like.). Ours was modeled after our mini-pumpkin friend.

Step 2: Cut a circle around the stem.  Make sure it’s big enough because you’ll have to stick your whole arm in there.

Step 3: Stick your arm in the hole and start grabbing out the innards.

Step 4: Use the big spoon as a spade to scrape the innards of the sides of the pumpkin.   Ultimately you want the inside of the pumpkin to be innard free and smooth.
Step 5: Use your big sharp scary knife to make starter cuts for the mini cheap saw (obviously this crappy tool was not meant for piercing all the way through pumpkins, just carving)
Step 6: Clean up any edges.
Step 7:  Light it up with a tea candle and spook your neighbors!!!

I so missed this family tradition and it was fun to start a new one with Jonathan.

What family traditions do you have for Halloween?  Did you start any new ones this year?

-Mads