25 Creative Pumpkin Carving Ideas

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One of our favorite things to do during Spooky Season is carve pumpkins!

Neither my husband nor I grew up carving pumpkins. I think I only remember doing it once as a kid. But we started carving pumpkins when our girls were little, and we have done it {almost} every year since!

It’s definitely an item we look forward to checking off our fall bucket list!

Here are some of the best pumpkin carving ideas we’ve come up with over the last 13 years, as well as some of the coolest ones I’ve seen online!

Baby Pumpkin

We couldn’t celebrate Lainey’s first Halloween without carving a baby pumpkin for her. We even put a bow on it because Lainey was almost always wearing a bow in those days!

Cannibal Pumpkin

In 2013, we made a cannibal pumpkin! A big mean pumpkin was taking a bite out of a scared little pumpkin.

A Witch

In 2014, we made a silly witch by using the stem for a nose!

A Carved Squash

Pumpkin Carving Ideas: Carve a squash for a unique jack-o-lantern. — *(Carving pumpkins was too mainstream, so he carved a squash.)*

*(This is what it looked like lit up at night.)*

Apparently, carving a pumpkin was too easy, so Heff carved a squash! It went perfectly with my sugar skull jack-o-lantern and the girls’ little painted pumpkins.

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Cute Cyclops

Lyvi didn’t like scary jack-o-lanterns; she wanted something cute. So, she carved a friendly cyclops and even bedazzled it with gems!

Scary Scar

*(She added a scar on his eye to make him look even meaner!)*

Lainey wanted a scary pumpkin. She even added a scar on his eye to make him look even meaner!

Big Mouth

Heff made this spooky jack-o-lantern with a big mouth and plenty of pointy teeth!

Pumpkin Carving Party

Before our PCS to Hawaii, my mom and dad threw a big pumpkin carving party at their house. Most of these were carved using stencils from a book, but they all turned out great!

Plus, we had so much fun carving all of these pumpkins together with our grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. It was a sweet send-off before we came to the island.

Goofy Faces

I’m such a sucker for jack-o-lanterns with goofy faces. To me, they’re better than those with scary faces.

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Scream

The ‘Scream’ mask is a Halloween icon! And this is one of those pumpkin carving ideas that mixes paint and carving.

Attack of the Tiny Pumpkins

This pumpkin carving idea looks like it’s right up Heff’s alley! He would tackle the big one, and I would carve the smaller ones. We might try it this year!

Skeleton Jail

This is one of the more unique pumpkin carving ideas. And it would be a pretty easy one to pull off, too!

Cute Bat

This little upside-down bat is so cute! I’m sure the kids would love it too!

The Cheshire Cat

This jack-o-lantern is carved with the face of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. And it is SO GOOD!

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Anglerfish

Some people come up with the most brilliant pumpkin carving ideas, like this anglerfish! (I had to use Google to even figure out the name of it.) Someone super talented was in charge of carving this one.

Halloween House

This person turned their pumpkin into a house. I think this would be such a cute idea for a realtor or home builder to do and post on their social media! You could even find some little skeletons to put in the windows, like in the ‘jail’ jack-o-lantern.

Brainiac

Pumpkin Carving Ideas: Brain — *(@epilepsylifestyle)*

This jack-o-lantern with an exposed brain is SO COOL! (And perfect for a page about epilepsy!) Heff likes scraping off the pumpkin’s skin to make different features, but he’s never done anything this intricate.

Squash for Ears

This jack-o-lantern is absolutely adorable with its buck teeth and big squash ears!

Pumpkin Skull

This two-in-one jack-o-lantern is unbelievably cool! And honestly doesn’t look like it would be that hard to pull off.

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Hear, See, & Speak No Evil

This is such a cute Halloween rendition of the 3 wise monkeys – Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil. Made even cuter with the skeleton arms and little pumpkins for eyes!

Pumpkin Puke

I’ve seen several renditions of the puking pumpkin, and they’re all great! It’s a little gross, but perfect for a ghoulish holiday like Halloween.

Bert & Ernie

Pumpkin Carving Ideas: Bert and Ernie — *(@norawhalencom)*

This jack-o-lantern rendition of Bert and Ernie is one of the best pumpkin carving ideas out there!

Cannibal Pumpkin

There’s just something so creepy about this grinning jack-o-lantern that’s eating a plate of his scraped-out innards.

Adult Scaries

There’s not much of anything scarier to adults than these things? These pumpkin carving ideas are hilarious!

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We always have so much fun going to pumpkin patches, picking out pumpkins, and carving them together. It’s become a treasured tradition for us that we can do at every duty station.

I hope these creative pumpkin carving ideas inspire you to do some carving this Spooky Season!