Ways to Create a Halloween Jack-o-lantern

With Halloween rapidly approaching you may be planning to carve a pumpkin to make a Jack-o-lantern. Some people may look forward to cutting open the top of a pumpkin and scooping out all the ooey, gooey innards and carving a face or design that will last a week tops before beginning to mold, smell and cave in. If you are not one to look forward to the mess and would rather save your pumpkin cutting to cooking it down for pies, here are a few ideas on how to create a low or no mess Jack-o-lantern and still have all the fun doing it.

If you want to go the absolutely easy route with no mess at all, you can purchase a man made plastic Jack-o-lantern at many stores. These pumpkins can be plugged into an electrical outlet and with an internal light will glow as if they were a true Jack-o-lantern. No mess what-so-ever.

If you have kids and want to do a hands on craft, using an old magazine, you and your kids can flip through the pages looking for different eyes, noses, mouths, ears, mustaches or any facial features you desire, have an adult cut out the pieces and either tape or glue them to the front of the pumpkin. Kids can create great and often hysterical (or freaky) looking works of art. If you do not have old magazines or ones that can be cut up, purchase some craft foam or felt and use it to create all sorts of different facial feature. Get lots of different foam colors and different pumpkins, squash or gourds to create different designs like a witch, a vampire, Frankenstein, or even a mummy, wrapped in gauze with just its eyes peeking out.

Kids also love to paint. Break out some washable paint and brushes and get creative. Lay down some newspaper to catch any drips or spills and with a permanent marker, draw outlines for a nose, mouth, and eyes. Let the kids paint between the lines creating their own colorful Jack-o-lantern face. If you have young kids who would rather just scribble than paint between the lines, just let them paint what they want on the pumpkin. Sometimes the best decorated pumpkins are the ones with all over brush strokes and no real pattern.

If you want to have fun with your pumpkin but don't want to deal with cutting out designs or messy paints, you can purchase pieces similar to Mr. Potato Head pieces which get pressed into the flesh of the pumpkin to create different faces and sometimes different animals. Kids can have fun mixing and matching pieces to create silly or scary faces.

Have you ever carved a traditional Jack-o-lantern or one with an intricate design and wished you could save it for future years? Well, now you can. Visit any craft store in the fall and you will see craft pumpkins. These Styrofoam pumpkins come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors and can be carved once and used again and again without the need to make a mess year after year. If you decide to use a craft pumpkin, know that there will be a great deal of Styrofoam "saw dust" from cutting so you'll want to carve your pumpkin in a location that will be easy to sweep or have someone handy with a vacuum to suck up the dust while you work. The lack of mess this project creates for future years outweighs the mess it creates initially. While these pumpkins may look like the real thing when carved, they are not fire resistant and can catch fire easily if a lit candle is placed inside. There are battery operated lights available that when switched on flicker as if a real candle is inside and are much safer to use than an open flame.

So there you have it, just a few ideas on how to have a Halloween Jack-o-lantern without all the mess that cutting and carving a pumpkin creates. Have a fun, safe, and happy Halloween!