Quick and Easy Ideas for Decorating Your Halloween Pumpkin

To carve or not to carve, that is the question. When our kids were growing up, it was a ritual to carve a pumpkin a few days before Halloween. My husband was in charge of carving the family pumpkin and I handled the pumpkin guts and toasting of the pumpkin seeds. As our three kids got older, they each wanted to carve their own pumpkin, so for several years we ended up with four carved pumpkins. Needless to say, I've seen enough pumpkin guts and pumpkin seeds to last me a lifetime or two.

A couple of years ago, my daughter and son-in-law invited my husband and me to their house to carve Halloween pumpkins. We headed out to buy our pumpkins, but decided we really didn't want to carve them. Halloween was about a week away and we thought it might be too early for carving. We were worried that the carved pumpkins wouldn't last until the big day, so we decided to decorate them instead.

Before heading to my daughter's house, I tried to figure out how to decorate our pumpkins. A lot of people paint their pumpkins. Considering I can't draw a straight line, painting a face on a pumpkin was out of the question for me. Besides, we didn't want the expense or the mess involved in painting. We wanted something quick and easy. I searched our old Halloween decorations and came across some stickers. There was a nose, mouth and eyes for one pumpkin, but what about the second one?

After thinking about it, I came up with an idea. I would use a glue gun and glue on Oreo cookies for eyes, and candy corn for a nose and mouth. The pumpkin was small, so I actually used mini Oreos for the eyes. As for the candy corn, a handful was all I needed, which left plenty for us to snack on while we decorated.

While my daughter and son-in-law carved their pumpkins, I took on my old role of toasting the pumpkin seeds. Since my husband had carved many pumpkins over the years, he was happy to decorate our larger pumpkin with the stickers. While the seeds toasted in the oven, I went about gluing on the decorations for our little pumpkin. It took about 5 minutes and turned out pretty cute.

If you are pressed for time this year, consider the uncarved Halloween pumpkin. It's quick and easy and best of all, no pumpkin guts!

If you carve a pumpkin and need some tips on how to make it last through Halloween, read Angel Vee's article: How to Keep a Carved Halloween Pumpkin Fresh