Halloween pumpkins are so much fun for the whole family. Coming up with ideas to carve can be the tricky part. Pumpkins come in so many shapes and sizes, just like people. These shapes and sizes in and of themselves and serve as the source for an idea.

Using several small pumpkins all in a row can be used to spell words or a phrase. Some ideas are: Happy Halloween, Trick or Treat, Scary, Spooky, Haunted House, Black Cat, or Turn Back Now. Use a different pumpkin for each letter. Line them up on the porch or use a bench to create rows or words. You can try just scraping the skin of the pumpkin and not cutting all the way through to make the shape for your letters. If you do this, you may want to scrape a little more flesh from behind that spot to allow more light through. This makes a really cool glow when you place the candle inside the pumpkin.

Create animals with your Halloween pumpkins. Make an owl (like the picture on this page) using gourds and squash for the ears, beak, and feet. You could use a long skinny pumpkin for the body of animal such as a wiener dog; you could make an elephant with a big round pumpkin. A rabbit would be very cute or something more Halloween like would be a black cat. You could spray paint your pumpkin black.

You could make a village of haunted houses. Cut windows and doors out of your pumpkins, add some spider webs and maybe a ghost flying over the top or coming out of the door. Make your ghost out of a sheet and use a ball for the head. Just drape the sheet over the ball and tie a string around its neck.

Displaying your Halloween pumpkins can fun too. Put them up in the branches of the trees out in your yard, hang them on the fence, put them on plant stands, or lining the walkway up to your front door.

Halloween pumpkins are fun and can be easy too. So get into the Halloween spirit and start planning your pumpkin designs now.

Rachael Taylor