My Guide to a Great Halloween Jack-O-Lantern

Its about that time of the year again. The trees are changing colors, the leaves are beginning to fall, fall is here, and Halloween isn't far off. Every one is decorating, getting their costumes ready and planning for the fall / Halloween activities. There are many activities to take part in during this time of the year. Things like haunted houses, hay rides, and Halloween parties were you can get candy and treats and bob for apples. We can't forget about carving the Halloween Jack-O-lantern.

One of my personal favorite activities has got to be carving the pumpkin. For hundreds of years people have been carving jack-o-lanterns and burning candles inside of them to help ward off the evil spirits that were believed to be able to pass freely between this world and the next on Halloween night. Not to mention the make great decorations. Halloween along with the carving of our pumpkin, all the costumes and handing out candy, has got to be one of my favorite holidays second only to Christmas.

In order to carve a great Halloween pumpkin you're going to need a few things:

-An idea, Every great Jack-O-lantern begins with a good idea of what you will want it to look like. You should know what kind of face or design you would like your pumpkin to have.

-A few basic tools. You will need a good sharp knife, large spoon, bowl, some news paper(or some sort of covering), a pencil, some tape, and some help. Pumpkin carving is always more fun with your family, or friends.

-OR-

A better much safer option is to purchase a pumpkin carving kit at Walmart or your favorite local store. These kits are really handy, for about five dollars you get everything you need and its much safer than using a knife. This kit can also be used two, maybe three times. These kits also come with a book of really cool design stencils.

To begin we will lay out our news paper, to keep our work area clean and not make a huge mess. Start by cutting a lid out of the top of your pumpkin using the stem as a handle. You will want to cut a small tooth in the back of the lid so you can put it on the correct way every time. The purchased pumpkin carving kit has detailed instructions on how to do this correctly.

Next you will want to clean all of the "guts" and seeds out of the inside of the pumpkin. Place these in your bowl to help keep your area clean. After your done cleaning the pumpkin out you can throw out the guts and seeds, or they can be kept to make things like pumpkin pie, and roasted pumpkin seeds. The seeds are great roasted I always keep mine.

Now that the inside of the pumpkin is cleaned out you will want to take your spoon and scrape thin the inside walls of the pumpkin. This both makes carving the pumpkin easier and helps save the pumpkin from rotting to early. Careful though not to scrape the walls to thin, you don't want to cut all the way through.

Now that you have cut your lid, cleaned out all the guts, and scraped the inside walls the real fun begins. Chose a template from the book of stencils and attach it to your pumpkin with a couple small pieces of tape. If your not using a kit sketch a design on your pumpkin with a pencil.

Now you will want to use your transfer tool, to press the design into the pumpkin and finally use your knife to cut along the lines and remove the appropriate pieces.

When your all done you should have a great looking decorative jack-o-lantern to set out front. Place a candle inside and light it up at night. Remember to be very careful as to not cut yourself, or get your lit candle to close to anything that may catch fire. This will really be a great experience for the entire family, enjoy.