Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

Hillary Marshall, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Sep 28, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

Carving a pumpkin can be a giant pain, especially if you have young children. Still, kids want to decorate that big, round, orange blob they brought home. Finding fresh ideas that allow young children to experience the pride of decorating their very own pumpkin can be tricky. Try out these ideas this year, they may be old to some of us, but they are new to others. Have Fun!

Painting

Of course painting pumpkins is an old idea, but you can always freshen up an old idea with new techniques. You can make stencils out of cardboard and let your kids use the stencils to make pumpkin faces. Sponge paints work well with pumpkins and you can cut shapes out of inexpensive dollar store sponges. You can also just fancy up the paints by buying glitter paints, glow in the dark paints or neon paints.

Collage

Making a pumpkin collage is another great way to decorate your pumpkin. Gather up loose buttons, plastic and foam shapes and other loose items for gluing. You can also use an old wig or yarn to add hair to your pumpkins. You can also have your kids cut eyes, noses and lips out of magazines to decorate their pumpkins collage style. Collages are a really easy way for really little ones to decorate their halloween pumpkin nice and fancy.

Go Organic

Dress up your pumpkin using vegetables. Pre-slice veggies and then let your kids stick them into their pumpkin using toothpicks. You can have them make a carrot nose and broccoli hair, the possibilities are endless. This idea is best when you get your pumpkin close to halloween since vegetables wilt. You just want to make certain your pumpkin isn't out in the warmth of the day for to long, night is best for veggie lanterns.

Make it a Sweetie

Using candy to decorate your pumpkins is fun and simple. Your kids will have tons of fun picking out candy to decorate their pumpkins. You can use Chicklets for the teeth, Gummy Worms for the hair and Twizzlers for lips. Of course those are just ideas, decorating with candy and other sweets can yield very colorful results. I have even heard of people using the type of icing that hardens to make pumpkin hair and other pumpkin features.

Decorating your pumpkin instead of carving your pumpkin has several advantages. Pumpkins that are not carved tend to last longer than carved pumpkins. Decorating pumpkins is safer for children than carving pumpkins. Last, but certainly not least a well preserved pumpkin can be cleaned up and baked into a delicious homemade pumpkin pie!

Published by Hillary Marshall

I love to write. I have since I was a girl. I write short stories, essays, and poetry. I have one daughter and she is 14. Someday my daughter will surpass me her writing is fantastic. Currently I freelance w... View profile

Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

10 Comments

Yahoo! Voices

Also on Yahoo!

Yahoo! Contributor Network