Looking for ways to get into the Halloween spirit? Well girl, let's chat about the best decorating pumpkin ideas for kids.
Decorating pumpkins is such a great tradition to carry on with your kids when Halloween rolls around. But maybe this year you want to shake things up a bit and try out some new decorating pumpkin ideas for kids.
As a mom of 4, I am going to tell you all about our favorite decorating pumpkin ideas for kids.
You are going to hear about different ways to spice up your pumpkin decorating by trying out things like classic carving pumpkins, painting pumpkins, using pumpkin stickers, and so much more!
After hearing about all these great decorating pumpkin ideas for kids, your pumpkins will be the best ones you have ever decorated.
Let's get started with the best decorating pumpkin ideas for kids.
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Best Decorating Pumpkin Ideas For Kids
I hope you love decorating pumpkins as much as I do! It is a tradition that I did with my family growing up.
Can you imagine 8 kids carving pumpkins all at the same time? Yes, I am one of 8! My parents covered their kitchen floor in newspaper and away we went. It was quite the production and always a blast.
Now that I have 4 kids, I have carried on the tradition but we have added fun new ways to decorate our pumpkins beside the traditional carving. That is still in the mix though.
Decorating Pumpkin Ideas - Who are these for?
All of the decorating pumpkin ideas listed below can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
Some of the ideas may be a bit more challenging for younger kiddos, but you can step in to help out.
When Is The Best Time To Decorate Pumpkins
Are you planning to set these pumpkins outside for Halloween trick-or-treat decorations?
If you are, depending on what your climate is, you should plan to decorate them only up to about a week in advance.
No matter which decorating idea you choose to do, keep an eye on the weather.
If you live in a cold climate, as I do, and it may frost then be sure to bring them in every night or they will cave in and turn into a pile of mush.
This did not bother me much, but it was pretty tragic for my kiddos.
Pump Up The Fun
Are your kids older than 5? Does your family like to compete?
Turn decorating pumpkins into a contest.
You can have it be a race with a time limit.
Everyone could have to use the same decorating idea or everyone picks a different one.
Maybe there could be some done with blindfolds or eyes closed. Probably not for the carving idea though.
I am not sure this would work with my kids yet. Even though they love to compete they hate to lose. Emotions get high!
My kids haven’t figured out how to not be so sensitive about losing.
Doing a pumpkin decorating contest would also be a great game at a Halloween party, and a fantastic way to pass some time.
We did it last year at our family Halloween party and then used all the pumpkins as decorations around the picture booth.
It turned out really cute like you were in a jack-o-lantern patch.
Decorating Pumpkin Ideas for Kids
1. Carving Pumpkins
Are you a traditionalist? Just can't branch out of what you know and love? Bring on carving the pumpkin!
This sounds like me to a tee, by the way.
Since becoming a mom, I have had to adjust away from this. Turns out, my kids have ideas they want to try that are different from mine.
Carving pumpkins is so much fun, but can also be time-consuming.
If you have pretty small kiddos who want to decorate their own pumpkin, I would wait on carving until they are at least 3 or 4.
They will get bored and you will be sitting there long after they have run off to play.
These pumpkin carving tools have worked so well for us.
And I love that it came with a case.
They work for the younger kids, who are doing a basic design, all the way up to adults, who may want to try a design that is a bit more challenging.
We also enjoy using these pumpkin face stencils.
It comes with 25 different designs and the stencils are made of plastic so they can be reused.
I let my daycare kids use these stencils on paper as a fun Halloween coloring activity. My 4 kids plus 3 daycare kids make for a busy house!
Don’t forget the candles for inside your pumpkin!
You can go with the traditional real candle but I prefer these battery-powered candles.
I like being able to use them year after year.
2. Painting Pumpkins
Are your kids just not into carving the pumpkins? Try painting them.
We have done this a few times and came up with some pretty cool pumpkins.
One year all of our pumpkins looked like M&M’s, another year was different emoji faces, and our favorite football team may have made an appearance on a pumpkin or 2 as well. My kids are diehard Packer Fans!
The possibilities are endless when it comes to painting your pumpkin. I painted Snoopy on his dog house once. So Fun!
The paint that I found works the best is this acrylic paint.
Just be aware that this paint is not washable!
I tried washable paint and it works but you can see the color of the pumpkin right through it.
We also have a set of these different-sized paint brushes.
They were made to work with acrylic paint and the different sizes can add detail if that is what you are after.
I have also tried these acrylic paint pens.
They make for really crisp lines if you just aren't that steady with a paintbrush for the details.
3. Pumpkin Stickers
Another great option to explore is making faces and designs with Halloween stickers.
This pack comes with lots of options to create many different stickers so your jack-o-lantern face options are endless!
It is fast and easy. I would recommend the sticker option for those with a lower attention span, mostly kids under 5.
We did this last year at a family Halloween party and the pumpkins turned out great. There were kids of all ages using these stickers.
They worked better than I thought they would.
These stickers are not messing around about sticking to the pumpkin. They lasted through a few nights of heavy dew.
After that, I wanted to bake the pumpkins up for pumpkin pie and the stickers were still hard to peel off.
We are doing a family Halloween party again, there are kids everywhere, and I will be buying another pack of these stickers for our pumpkins.
4. Pumpkin Drilling
Using a drill is a bit of an out-of-the-box option, but it works. My husband has this drill and these drill bits.
One year, way back before we had kids, we had this pumpkin that had incredibly thick walls. It was going to take us FOREVER to scrape down the insides enough to make a jack-o-lantern face.
We scooped out all the seeds anyway and tried to figure out how we should decorate the pumpkin.
My husband brought up the idea of using a drill and different-sized drill bits. He drilled holes all over it in no particular pattern. My job was to hold the pumpkin steady.
When we were done, we put 3 battery-powered candles in it.
It looked so cool, like a starry night sky!
If you want to give this a try, a starry night sky is not your only option.
You can use these stencils, draw an outline with a pencil, and then use the drill to create the outline of a Halloween image.
5. Pumpkin Decorating
To create a completely different look for your decorated pumpkin try tissue paper, streamers or string. This is a great project for kids of all ages.
With tissue paper, you can use any Halloween festive colors you like.
Cut the tissue paper into about 1 – 2-inch squares until you have as much as you like.
I like this tissue paper best.
Add glue to the pumpkin using these glue sticks.
Then apply the tissue paper.
You can add a face by using stickers or construction paper.
If you want to try out the streamer idea, you can take white streamers and wrap your pumpkin all up.
Add some googly eyes and make it look like a mummy.
To make your pumpkin look like it got caught up in a spider web, wrap white yarn around it and add some plastic spiders.
Happy Halloween
I hope you have so much fun doing pumpkin decorating with your kids! Don’t forget to have your camera on hand to capture all the fun!
This post was all about the best decorating pumpkin ideas to try with your kids.
Leave me a comment below about all the ways you like to decorate pumpkins. We are always up for trying out new ideas.
I look forward to hearing from you and thanks for stopping by.