12 Easy Pumpkin Carving Ideas For Kids & Their Non-Artistic Parents

Jack Skellington is an irresistible Jack O’Lantern design, plus this gives you an excuse to watch Nightmare Before Christmas with the kids. This is another easy one as you just need to cut big holes for the eyes and nose, and carve a thin mouth.

Looks like this Jack-O’-lantern ate too much candy this Halloween. This is a relatively easy one because you just need to carve a large hole for the mouth, poke two holes for the nose, and then carve three straight lines for each eye. Don’t throw the insides of the pumpkin away, obviously. Since some animals enjoy eating pumpkins, the seeds might attract them to your porch — check out these tips to prevent that.

These is both adorable ideas for someone who doesn’t love the gore of Halloween. For both, you’ll want to start by tracing the designs with a pencil. If you think it might be hard to do the flowers, since they’re round, draw them on much bigger.

For these silly monsters, you’ll want to start by choosing whatever object you want to stick in their eyes and cut eyeholes based on how big they are. You could use rocks, Play-Doh, or cotton balls and glue little dots carved from another part of the pumpkin on top of the object. Then, you can do whatever shape you want for the mouth and use any excess for the tongue, like the one on the left.

Instead of carving these even dots with a knife, you’ll want to do these with a drill. That might seem excessive, but using a drill will make the activity fly by and they’ll all come out even. You just have to be careful not to do it too hard since your pumpkin probably isn’t made of steel. They’ll look so pretty with the light coming out of the polka dots.

A lot of skull carvings are really difficult, but this one isn’t too bad. Start by cutting two eyes, a rounded triangle for a nose, and teeth. Then, start cutting around the face to make out the shape of the skull. Leave a little bit of space between the cheekbones and the smile.

Owls have autumn energy. This is a really easy carving because you can start with the downward facing D-shaped eyes — leaving little circles for the pupils — a triangle nose and wings. Make the triangles for the fur after the wings so you know where exactly to cut them.

This little critter is easy, partially because the more messed up he looks, the better. Cut the outline of his head and ears, and then do the sort of janky eyes and mouth. Finally, cut the circle above his head so the light can come through more.

Just because you get a small pumpkin, doesn’t mean the pumpkin has to have small face. You can get the most out of it by carving a big face that takes up most of the pumpkin, which will allow a lot of light to come through it.

There’s so many ways you can do something fun with individual letters on pumpkins. You can carve the first initial of your family’s last name, or create a message like this one if you have the room for a lot of Jack O’Lanterns. Some other messages could be “trick or treat” or “Boo!”

This face made out of geometric shapes is really cool. Carve a long rhombus for the eyebrows, with four triangles underneath for eyes. Two triangles will make up the nose and an oval shaped mouth with teeth and/or fangs will make for a cute mouth.

This carving is a bit harder, but why not challenge yourself this Halloween? After tracing the cat, start by carving the head and ears. Work your way and carve a straight line into a curved line for the back and tail. Then carve the legs, leaving some space between each. Add the circle around the cat, but make sure the legs and top of the ear are attached to the pumpkin. Once you’re done with the outline, use a smaller knife to cut the face.