Make Stuff: Pumpkin Carving with Kids

I love carving pumpkins. Probably because it's just one more outlet for my creativity. I think kids like it because it's messy and knives are involved. But for little ones (and I still consider my 5 year old to be a little one on this project) using a knife is not only a tad dangerous, it is really hard to do. To keep my kids involved in the process I have tried a number of things in the past few years.


I always let them help clean out the pumpkins. My kids like to dig right in with their hands. Some kids might want to use a large spoon. And we always love to roast the seeds .


Last year I had my daughter, then four, draw a picture of a scary face on a piece of paper for me. I then carved that face onto her pumpkin. She was so pleased to see her flat drawing come to life on the pumpkin.














The little one was too little to draw anything last year, so I carved her pumpkin with vampire fangs to commemorate the way her bicuspids came in first that year.

This year, we're going to draw scary pumpkin faces on paper again. They might need some creative interpretation from mom (especially the 2 year old's drawing) when it comes time to carve it onto the pumpkin, but it is surely a fun way to get kids involved the pumpkin carving tradition!