Sometimes holidays make sense because of the popularity of an activity or a person. At other times, even though a holiday is celebrated, the reasons for celebrating can be quite obscure. Take “Carve a Pumpkin Day”, for example. Many people have never heard of this holiday.
Carve a Pumpkin Day is usually celebrated on October 31 just like Halloween. Since this holiday is associated with Halloween, you would think it would be widely celebrated but it’s not. Many people just pick a day that is convenient for them to carve the pumpkins, instead of sticking to the October 31 date. So it is often unofficially incorporated into the more well known Halloween holiday without anyone ever realizing that “Carve a Pumpkin Day” even exists.
If you participate in Halloween activities, one of them likely involves decorating or carving a pumpkin. You can make Carve a Pumpkin Day a tradition at your house no matter what day you celebrate it.
Planning A Pumpkin Carving Tradition
- A week or two before Halloween, start looking for a pumpkin. Try not to buy it too early or it will begin to decay. Wash the pumpkin to help it last longer.
- Plan your Carve a Pumpkin Day activity for two to three days before Halloween because they will begin to go bad very quickly after they have been carved.
- Invite friends to bring their pumpkins over to have a carving party. You may want to serve harvest-type snacks to enjoy while you’re busy creating your pumpkin masterpiece.
Basic Steps To Prepare And Carve Your Pumpkin
- Cut out the area for the “cap” and then have kids scoop out the seeds.
- Instead of throwing the pumpkin seeds away, roast them for an additional snack. You can fix them so they’re either salted or unsalted; whichever way you prefer them best.
- Rinse the inside with a fruit preservative. It may help your cut pumpkin to last longer. Dry off the pumpkin.
- Before the carving begins, let the children draw the faces they’d like on their pumpkins with washable magic markers. If they make a mistake, correcting it is as easy as washing it off and starting again. When the children are happy with the faces they’ve drawn, it’s time to let the parents start cutting.
- Adults and older children can now start carving the pumpkins in earnest.
After the pumpkins are carved, have a contest among the artists to decide which one is scariest, which one is funniest, which one is the most intricate, etc. Avoid calling one the “best” so no one feels badly that their pumpkin wasn’t chosen.
Since you’re celebrating Halloween and planning on carving at least one pumpkin to decorate your house, why not celebrate Carve a Pumpkin Day, too. Make a day out of it by inviting friends to join in the fun. In fact, why not create a tradition of having a Carve a Pumpkin Day celebration every year.
Want to make Halloween fun? Grab your copy of A Tale of Halloween to get more info and ideas.
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Why don’t you just have the children pick out their own pumpkin carving pattern instead of having them draw it on. You can print them out before hand and they will probably be pretty excited at seeing what their finished pumpkins can look like.
A lot of moms like to use the opportunity to inspire creativity in their children. If parents don’t have a lot of time or have very young children, the pumpkin patterns you offer on your site are a great alternative.
Thanks for sharing!