The most scary thing about Halloween isn’t the scary costumes, scary snacks, scary decorations, or trick-or-treating; it’s all the trash we make. About 18,000 tonnes of pumpkins are thrown away every year in the UK because they are carved into jack-o-lanterns.
You can still have fun decorating pumpkins without hurting the environment. Just paint Halloween faces on them, wrap them up like mummies, or put stickers on them instead.
Our pumpkin decorating ideas, ranging from scary painting ideas to more creative ones that are good for all ages, will keep the kids busy during the October half-term. Check out our fall baking projects for kids for more ideas on what to do.
This pumpkin, Crown Prince, Red Kuri, or Blue Hubbard, will taste much better when cooked, according to Cassie Best, the food director at Good Food. The pumpkins that are usually sold for carving can taste watery and less pleasant. Before cooking, make sure to take off the skin and wash it well.
Get ideas from our best pumpkin recipes, pumpkin soup recipes, pumpkin recipes for kids, and pumpkin recipes to roast. Check out our pumpkin seed recipes and DIY pumpkin recipes for more low-waste ideas.
If pumpkins are too much for you this Halloween, try one of these other things you can carve. Just don’t throw away the pumpkins.
You will need:
- A selection of paintbrushes and paints
- Thin and thick pens and markers in various colours
- Newspaper
Optional extras
Depending on how you’re decorating your pumpkin, the following may also be helpful:
- Bandages (or toilet roll)
- Black card
- Colourful stickers
- Glue
- Googly eyes
- Pipe cleaners
How to paint a pumpkin
1. Clear the pumpkin of any dirt. If it’s really dirty, use a vegetable brush or a damp cloth to clean it.
2. Dry your pumpkin. If you don’t, the pen, paint, or glue won’t stick to it when you try to decorate it.
3. Put it on newspaper to keep paint or glue from getting on it.
4. You can use the designs below as a guide, or you can make your own. Let your pumpkin dry completely before moving it to its new home.
5. Don’t leave your pumpkin out in the rain, or you might lose the pretty design on it.
Pumpkin decorating ideas
1. Paint a cat’s face
Paint about two-thirds of the pumpkin black. On one side, draw two half-moon shapes to make the mouth of a cat. Draw the eyes, nose, and whiskers with a white or silver marker pen. Get black card or felt and cut out ears. Pin them on with pins or use a cat’s-ear headband.
2. Wrap up like a mummy
Wrap bandages (or even toilet roll) tightly around the pumpkin, leaving a thin slit exposed for the eyes. Cut out eye shapes using black card, then paint or draw on the pupils. Pin the eyes to the pumpkin.
3. Make a face out of stickers
4. Give it stripes
Earn your eco Halloween stripes with this alternating-colour design. Paint alternating gold and black sections using the natural curves of the pumpkin as a guide for a classy Halloween party decoration.
5. Add googly eyes
Even something as simple as stick-on googly eyes can transform your pumpkin from an inanimate vegetable into a convincingly spooky addition to your Halloween decorations. Using a variety of shapes, sizes and varieties of pumpkin will add interest, and you can always draw on ghoulish expressions for extra Halloween fun.
6. Make it monochrome with black
7. Paint a floral design
Who said pumpkins had to be scary? If you want to do something creative, you can paint a pretty flower design with different colors or use felt tip pens for a pretty alternative to the usual Halloween designs.
8. Give your pumpkin a hat
Use black and orange card to make a witch’s hat for your pumpkin. If you’re feeling really crafty, you could even knit one.
9. Write a Halloween message
You can do anything with your pumpkin if you think of it as a blank canvas. Use all the traditional Halloween images, like spider webs and bats, and add Halloween messages to get ready for October 31.
10. Use pipe cleaners
Use pipe cleaners to fashion eyes, ears and more onto your pumpkins.
11. Make them extra-colourful
Paint your pumpkins to look like your favorite cartoon and TV show bad guys. The more colors you use, the better.
12. Paint it white
If you paint your pumpkin white, you can draw on it and make it look unique. It can be used to make scary Halloween letters, different colored bats, or even more pumpkins.
13. Get glittery
Transform your pumpkin into a shiny disco ball with non-plastic biodegradable glitter.
14. Draw cartoon faces
Your pumpkin will stand out from the rest if it has simple cartoon designs and moving faces like these.
15. Make it into a unicorn
With flowers, greenery, a golden horn, and eyelashes that move, you can turn your pumpkin into a unicorn.
16. Give it legs
Having a pumpkin-sized spider in your front garden will bother your neighbors. For spider legs made of fluffy yarn, poke holes in your pumpkin with sticks and then wrap pipe cleaners around them.
17. Draw a spiderweb
Children of all ages can paint or draw a simple spider’s web on their pumpkin. Older children can add a spider that looks really scary in the middle.
18. Use crackly paint
You can easily make your pumpkin look even more like Halloween by painting it with a special paint that dries with a cracked look.
19. Make it luminous
If you use bright paint or paint that glows in the dark, trick-or-treaters will remember to come to your house on October 31.
20. Keep it simple
It’s great that kids of all ages and skill levels can do pumpkin painting for Halloween. The designs can be kept simple for younger kids, but the more creative ones can let their minds run wild.
