To Carve or Paint? Pumpkin Woes of 2016

December 7, 2016 by Joi Light

I’m not sure when painting pumpkins came into play, as a kid they were always carved. I feel like if I even suggested painting pumpkins as a kid, my parents might have thought I was from a different planet. It was a tradition to go pick a pumpkin, bring it home to carve, and bake the pumpkin seeds. When I googled carving pumpkins this year, I started to see alternatives. Painting pumpkins seems to be the new hip and trendy thing to do for Halloween. Honestly, it’s a GREAT alternative! However, I feel like I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence as a parent to not carve a pumpkin. I seem to find these weird ‘pressures’ in all aspects of life as a parent. Any who, I did both.

Here’s what you’ll need to paint a pumpkin:

-Small, medium, or large pumpkins

-Arts & Crafts supplies (these were all purchased from Dollar Tree)

-Bowls/cups for your water to clean paintbrushes

-Drop-cloth/ old sheet that you don’t mind getting dirty

-Good music

-Wine (optional)

Here’s what you’ll need to carve a pumpkin:

-Small, medium, or large pumpkins

-Patience

-Lower arm muscles

-marker/crayon to draw design on pumpkin

-being able to stomach pulling out pumpkin guts

-knife

Pumpkin carving might be a tradition that I’m willing to let go of. Painting is way less aggressive than stabbing a circular object with a knife that is intended to cut horizontally or vertically, not for making shapes. Even though more supplies were required for painting, it was actually an easier clean up process and I’m not a fan of pumpkin seeds anyways. The only pro I really see in carving pumpkins is if you live in a house where trick-or-treating is popular and you can light a candle inside of your pumpkin to let the trick-or-treaters know that you have candy. Next year, we will only paint pumpkins, because painting pumpkins is a statement piece. My painted pumpkins in front of my apartment door says this resident likes DIY projects but they’re probably so busy decorating their home, they forget to buy candy, try my neighbors, they carved.