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A small lit pumpkin with a simple carved design glowing orange
Christo · CC BY-SA 4.0

Somebody's first pumpkin

The wonky one gets photographed. Every year.

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What you need

  • A small pumpkin — easier hands, easier arms
  • A marker
  • Cookie cutters and a mallet, if you have them
  • A spoon they can actually hold

The trick

Let them draw it, you cut it

The drawing is the part they care about and the knife is the part they should not have. Trace what they drew exactly, crooked lines included.

Try this

  • Cookie cutters tapped through with a mallet make clean shapes with no blade involved.
  • Open it from the bottom instead of the top — it sits over the candle rather than around it.
  • Half an hour before anyone loses interest
  • Considerable mess
  • Better with an adult
  • Small hands welcome