As many parents find out, the craziness of Halloween week can reek havoc with your normal, busy week. Shopping for or making costumes, baking treats for your child’s class, decorating the lawn and carving pumpkins while driving your kids to lessons and practices can be overwhelming!
Several years ago, when our girls were both heavily into dance, youth group, and piano lessons, I sat down with my calendar, desperately trying to figure out when we would carve our pumpkins. There wasn’t a free evening anywhere! During one of the girl’s many practices, I wandered into Michaels and found the answer to my prayers! I purchased two artificial pumpkins and showed my daughters when I picked them up. They were apprehensive; pumpkin carving was a big part of our Halloween tradition, but they both began to discuss the designs they would create.
Weeks before Halloween, we all sat down at the kitchen table and the girls began to draw out their designs. We carved the pumpkins with kitchen knives, just like we did real pumpkins. The end result was fantastic! We had two, beautiful jack-o-lanterns ready for Halloween which would not rot or shrivel in the coming weeks!
Halloween night came, and by using a small, battery operated tea light, their creations were realistic and sat on our doorstep to welcome trick-or-treaters.
The following year, I purchased additional pumpkins and the girls created two more jack-o-lanterns. We now had a mini pumpkin patch to display!
Tarilyn is now in university, and we thought that with her job and studies, she would opt out of carving this year. But because we can begin carving so far in advance, she was able to participate in the fun. I even joined in this year and made a RE/MAX jack-o-lantern!
Tips:
- Wait until the first week of October to buy your artificial pumpkins. This is when all of the Halloween decorations go on sale.
- Don’t use the carving tool kits you can find in some stores. The serrated edges may work well on a real pumpkin, but they can tear up your designs.
- Try using coloured or flashing lights in your pumpkin! This can add a really cool effect to your design.
- When a design calls for tiny holes, Claude will use an electric drill. It works perfectly!