Easy Methods to Carve Your Halloween Pumpkin with Pictures to Obtain Professional Looking Results

With the brisk breeze blowing the autumn leaves from the safety of their trees the holiday season is upon us. For adults who can resist the fun of Halloween? This is especially true for parents and children. It is the beghinning of a season of holiday activities which sweeps us into the New Year. Brisk air, falling leaves and excitement grows each day especially for children. They know only too well the what lies ahead.

Parents and their children celebrate these days filled with excitement with Holiday activities. The first of these Holidays is Halloween. It can be both overwhelming and daunting to keep children focused on the preparations. Conversely, a parent who successfully engages their child in productive activities can transition easily through the seasons making lasting loving memories which can be last a life time.

The key to Halloween for any parent is to make certain they are well planned out inadvance. The children are anticipating the sugar high on Halloween and have the propesity to get into trouble. Keeping them busy is the best offense a parent has but it can also be a lot of fun, productive and a bonding experience. Pumpkin carving is an activity which the parent can engage their child in while creating a beautiful Halloween decoration.

This article provides easy detailed instructions how to carve pumpkins like a professional while engaging children in productive Halloween crafts. It also includes a sections on how to make roasted pumpkin seeds.

I hope this article makes carving your pumpkin easy and enjoyable.

For every parent the key to this whole enterprise is to be well planned. Here are the steps to successful pumpkin carving.

• Pick the perfect pumpkin. It like to buy ours from our church but we spend a great deal of time in the pumpkin patch finding the perfect pumpkin. Flat sides are easier to carve but do not provide the dimensions we like. So we find a nice big round pumpkin. Caution small pumpkins are very difficult to carve
• Lay old newspaper out and clean out your pumpkin well (reserve seeds). Allow time for it to dry. I usually like to let it dry over night but this can vary based on the size. Overnight is a good rule of thumb.
• Use a stencil and outhine your design.
• Use an exacto knife for the fine cuts and a sharp steak knive to the larger cutting.
• Always leave enough room for error and then go back over your work with the exacto knife one last time..
• Leave to dry out for atleast 6-8 hours after cutting.
• Be creative there is really no wrong way to carve a pumpkin but I have included stencils for you to print and use.

For the seed fanatic, roasted pumpkin seeds are awesome. They can be used in recipes or eaten right out of the oven. Children love them as well and pumpkin seeds are a healthy snack during a holiday riddled with unhealthy treats. Roasting the seeds is also yet another parent and child activity which provides for hours of fun. It is a simple, delicious and a versatile food.

Below is a video providing information on how to roasted pumpkins seeds.

Halloween can be a fun filled holiday for the entire family or a parents worst nightmare. The difference lies in the level of preparation and organization of family activities. Parents can make Halloween as grand or as small as they choose. It really is a personal choice. As a general rule the younger the child the grander the holiday. As the child matures the holiday usually is held in more organized fashion. For instance locally, due to hazards, children dress up and go to the Mall. The Mall vendors give out candy. Teenagers usually go to friends Halloween parties. This is true of adults as well.

Halloween seems to have been a causality of the September 11, terrorist attacks. The Halloween after those attacks we did venture out that year but we were few and far between. It has not yet made a comeback. We still have carved a pumpkin every year regardless. For us, we will not let this holiday taken from us. So each year we carve a pumpkin and make the seeds. We place the pumpkin outside our door welcoming all Trick or Treaters.

To all my readers: Happy Halloween.