A tradition in my family is to carve pumpkins every Halloween Season, but there are other ways you can decorate a Pumpkin besides carving them. Sometimes when you have younger kids having them carve a pumpkin can be scary. I know I was always afraid they may hurt themselves - even with our assistance.

So I am going to share with you some fun Alternatives to Carving that are great for both the kids and the adults.

Lets start with the most obvious alternative - Painting your Pumpkins. This can really be a lot of fun for anyone. You can really get very creative when painting a pumpkin. Last year I decided that this is what I was going to do vs carving. I turned my Pumpkin into a Dog as you can see in the photo above. I use gourds for the ears and added a small piece of fur material to the top of pumpkin I had laying around. My daughter also followed and made her own Kitty and Puppy. We made ears using foam and attaching toothpicks to the back to stick into the pumpkin and some Pom Poms we glued on for her Puppy Ears.

The paint we used was basic Acrylics I have in my craft room, but you can also use Poster Paints. You can even use markers if that is all you have available.

You can also use some of the kits available to dress your Pumpkins. The kits come with pieces that you can stick into your Pumpkin to give it a fun festive look. You can also make your own pieces using Foam, Cardboard, Potato head pieces etc... When I make pieces to stick into my Pumpkins I attach either toothpicks to the back or Skewers so they can securely stick in and stay in. Just use your imagination and you can create a masterpiece that will have all your neighbors talking when they come to Trick or Treat at your house.