In Canada, as October rolls around, you will see many people decorating for Halloween. In North America, this holiday is widely celebrated with everything from trick-or-treating, to lights and decorations covering many houses, inside and out.

A favourite decoration for Halloween is most definitely the Jack-o’-Lantern, which is not only a great family craft activity, but also provides the ingredients for some delicious pumpkin dishes, and will make your Halloween house come to life!

The first step in making a Jack-o’-Lantern is to gather the tools needed:

  • a sharp knife
  • a dessert spoon and a teaspoon
  • candles (tea candles or small white candles will work best)
  • newspaper to lay under your pumpkin for an easy clean up
  • a bowl to collect the inside of the pumpkin
  • a pen to sketch out the face
  • the perfect pumpkin; one that is reasonably large and round is best as it is easier to hollow out.

Once you have gathered all the materials you can get to work following these easy steps:

  1. Cut a circular hole around the stalk of your pumpkin, keeping the knife tilted to stop the lid falling into the pumpkin.
  2. Using the dessert spoon dig out the middle of the pumpkin.
  3. Draw the outline of your Jack-o’-Lantern face onto the outside so your pumpkin carving will be simpler.
  4. Once again using the knife, cut out your face outline. To get clean lines, it is best to puncture the pumpkin rather than slice at it.
  5. Take the dessert spoon and hollow out the rest of the pumpkin until the skin is about an inch thick.
  6. Place your candle on the bottom of the pumpkin and trace its circumference, then using the teaspoon scrape out the area so that the candle has a safe and solid place to sit in the bottom.
  7. Place the candle in the pumpkin, light it, and replace the lid that you cut off in step 1.

With these 7 simple steps, you and your family will have amazing Halloween decorations for inside and outside the house! Remember that you can make different sized pumpkin carvings with all different sorts of patterns!

For some great Jack-o’-Lantern and pumpkin carving patterns, click here.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia