When To Carve a Pumpkin

[Princess_Aurora]

When do you carve your Halloween pumpkin? I usually end up carving mine too early and by the time Halloween gets here the pumpkin is all moldy and stinkey. When is the best time to start the carving???

And speaking of pumpkins...have you guys seen those cute pumpkin costumes at TDS? They come in five pieces and you stick them in your pumpkin...it's a head, two arms and two legs. They have Mikey, Minnie, Pooh, and Stitch...or at least those are the ones I've seen. There's no carving involved and when Halloween's over, you take them out of the pumpkin, wash them off and save them for next year. They look pretty cool

 

[caitycaity]

for us it's one or two days beforehand. otherwise it starts to rot, or the squirrels start eating it.

 

[CEDmom]

I'd also say a day or two before. Those pumpkin decorations are great. I got some at Walmart last year (not Disney but still cute) those pumpkins lasted for a long time.

 

[llebrekniT]

We usually carve ours 5 or 6 days before as long as the extended forecast doesn't show any especially warm days (above 60) coming. If it stays cool out and the pumpkin isn't in the sun, it will be fine. If it's in the house, then 2 days is probably the soonest. In the meantime, you can draw faces on it with markers and they will wash off when you want to carve it.

 

[Megan's Mom]

I have been thinking of buying an artificial carvable pumpkin like they have at Michaels and other craft stores. It would be worth it to pay a little more this year and then it would last for years. We had the carve patterns of the pooh characters last year and did Pooh and it was so cute so I wish we had done this last year as well.

 

[Princess_Aurora]

Are those the Funkin artificial pumpkins? I've seen those on the internet and thought about getting a couple. But if I can go to a craft store and buy some, that will save on the shipping.

 

[bambii]

put petroleum Jelly (vaseline) on the areas you cut, to keep the cut areas moist, and if it really starts to get out of shape or dry put it in a big pot of cold water for a few hours a bath tub works well.

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

Around here, the pumpkins turn black if they are outside a couple of days or so thanks to the humidity. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), both of my kids have "holiday" birthdays. DD1's birthday is Dec 7, so we wait until after her B-day to put up the Christmas tree. DD2's B-day is Oct 29, so we carve the pumpkin on Oct 30. Which works out well considering our weather!

We work really hard to separate the kids birthdays from the nearest holidays.

 

[believe]

1-2 days before....sometimes the day of. I do put foil on the inside, this keeps the wind from drying the pumpkin out too fast. I like the petroleum jelly idea.

 

[nkjzmom]

Our tradition is to cut it Halloween day. We usually have a pumpkin for each person in the family and they draw their face and DH cuts it. I can smell the pumpkin "guts" already!!!

 

[ToyStory Fan]

Originally posted by bambii
put petroleum Jelly (vaseline) on the areas you cut, to keep the cut areas moist, and if it really starts to get out of shape or dry put it in a big pot of cold water for a few hours a bath tub works well.

WOW!...and I thought I was the only lunatic that did this (I mean that in a good way).

I use the Pumpkin Masters carving kits and do 4 or 5 really elaborate pumpkins (with shadow casting etc), and I like to keep the house decorated for a few days before Halloween. I used to soak the pumpkins during the day in the slop sinks in our basement and then when it got dark took them out and lit the candles. I didn't think of the vaseline part, my pumpkins lasted for over a week doing the daily soak and it also took them out of harms way from the squirrels.