If you take a step back, it might seem a bit strange that every fall, thousands, if not millions of innocent pumpkins are carved up, just to give a room a spooky look. But there is no denying that a creatively carved pumpkin does add that little bit of spice to any Halloween decor. And some people really do take their decorations to the next level.
So people from all over the internet share the most interesting, cool, and spookiest pumpkins they have carved, designed, and decorated in the spirit of Halloween. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorite creations, and be sure to comment your thoughts and ideas below.
#1 This Year’s Pumpkin Worked Out
Image credits: DanteFenolio
#2 I Carved A Pumpkin Beholder
Image credits: Commander_Peanuts
#3 Finished The Pumpkin Carving
Image credits: reddit.com
The origins of the carved pumpkin (or jack-o’-lantern) are nearly as spooky as Halloween itself. The lights, if certain tales are to be believed, represent or were inspired by the will-o'-wisp, a creature out of European folklore. This creature or spirit, depending on which interpretation one goes by, can be “found” at night, trying to lure people off of paths.
After leading a person into a marsh or other remote, wild area, it disappears, leaving them lost. As per usual in European folklore, spirits, and creatures of the night are seldom around to help us humans. While the jack-o’-lantern isn’t exactly the same thing, its lights are supposed to represent these spirits.
#4 My Boss Told Me My Pumpkin Was “Too Basic” To Be Entered Into Our Work’s Pumpkin Carving Contest
Image credits: Thicthor96
#5 Tried Something Different During Pumpkin Carving This Year. Pretty Stoked With The Result
Image credits: munleymun
#6 Kitty Cat Jack-O'-Lantern
Image credits: TowandaForever
While the pumpkin is currently the undisputed king of carved vegetables, in the past it was common to also use turnips and even rutabaga to make faces. These faces and “lanterns” were used to ward off evil spirits at the spooky time of year, although in some cases they would also represent said spirits, so it seems that different people had different relationships with the spirits.
#7 A Very Easy Pumpkin With A Truly Haunting Result
Image credits: vistopher
#8 Jacked-O'-Lantern
Image credits: rishinerevetla
#9 A Lil Over The Garden Wall Inspired Carve On 6.5” Michaels Foam Pumpkin. It’s A Pumpkinception
Image credits: babysmash3r
While the tradition originated in the British Isles, the actual pumpkin is a vegetable from the Americas. So it’s not surprising that the first mentions of a carved pumpkin in North America go all the way back to 1837. However, at the time, it was more a celebration of the harvest than anything to do with Halloween or spirits, evil and benign.
#10 My Pumpkin Carving For This Year
Image credits: Rocktave
#11 I Won The Work Contest With This Guy
Image credits: Jewels2992
#12 Happy Holyween, Thank You For The Joy That Christian Kirbo Brings Us All
Image credits: Hitokiri_Ace
It would only be a few decades later when Americans would start to associate the carved and candle’d pumpkin with Halloween. Given that Halloween and the harvest aren’t that far apart, the connection seems pretty easy to make. After all, you can't have an abundance of pumpkins to carve without a harvest.
#13 Carved By My Incredibly Talented Husband. Yes, It’s A Real Pumpkin. He Used Watered-Down Acrylics To Create The Aged Wood Texture
Image credits: BethWifeEver
#14 Carved A Pumpkin Into One Of My Favorite Witcher Monsters: A Leshen
Image credits: Yyvern
#15 My Wheezing Jack-O'-Lantern That I Carved Way Too Early
I just carved a pumpkin for the first time in over a decade and it turns out a carved fruit doesn't do so well outside in Florida.
Image credits: robertjohnson06
Since the 1860s, the craft of carving pumpkins has only expanded, as well as the actual size of canvas. Just recently, the record for the world’s heaviest pumpkin was broken again by Travis Gienger, with a 1,226 kg (2,702 lb) pumpkin named “Michal Jordan.” One can imagine a skilled pumpkin carver looking at this massive “canvas” and being overwhelmed by the possibilities.
#16 I Know Halloween Is Over But My Pumpkin Won 3rd Place In A Contest Tonight And I’m Super Stoked
Image credits: JustTom1
#17 1st Butternut Squash Carving
Image credits: bughunterx00
#18 Some Of The Floors Had A Pumpkin Carving Contest
Image credits: FriskyPinecone
Certain North American towns take their pumpkin carving very, very seriously. For example, the inhabitants of Keene in New Hampshire worked together to carve, light up, and display a staggering 30,581 pumpkins in 2013, setting a new world record. While the individual quality of the pumpkins is questionable, there is no denying that quantity has a quality of its own.
#19 Here's A Little Beetlejuice I Carved Recently On A 6.5" Foam Pumpkin
Image credits: jo3y3dwards
#20 Giant Pumpkin Geode
We carve/decorate a giant pumpkin for Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta every year for my company's Peapod Jewelry. This was our entry for 2022.
Image credits: Empresseeyawn
#21 My Pumpkin This Year
Image credits: j4zmon
The art of pumpkin carving has expanded alongside technology. While in the past, people would be limited to candles or perhaps lanterns, access to better, more consistent lights now allow people to work with light like never before. At the same time, more accessible tools allow people to make more intricate carvings.
#22 Happy Halloween Grounded! I Tried To Make The Scariest Pumpkin Possible
Image credits: Novastorm141
#23 My Kid Is Obsessed With Sea Life. This May Be The Coolest Pumpkin I’ve Ever Carved
Image credits: JillyDolls
#24 Poison Apple Pumpkin
Image credits: ChimpTang
Add in paint, glitter, stencils, and other extras and a committed carver can turn a pumpkin into almost anything. As you can see in this list, some pumpkins, for better or worse, have strayed so far from their original form that they more resemble sculptures than anything else.
#25 Finished My Pumpkinpede
Image credits: Yurconale
#26 Vecna Pumpkin. Freehand Carved And Painted
Image credits: fredraydricks
#27 Pumpkin Carving Of Carving A Pumpkin
Image credits: ktownpark
It’s arguable that this has created a sort of pumpkin art escalation, as creatives vie with each other to see who is going to do something different with a pumpkin. Some don’t even bother with lights and instead treat the outer skin of the pumpkin as a sort of canvas, a sentence that out of context sounds as spooky as Halloween itself.
#28 My Entry For The Pumpkin Decorating Contest At Work Last Halloween
My work had a pumpkin decorating contest last Halloween and this was my entry (didn't realize I hadn't posted) it came out pretty close to how I imagined it. Not freaky, just kind of mellow. It can be lit from the front or back. I prefer the backlit look.
My entry for this will be a sleepy hollow theme, I think, cause I bought a second pumpkin when the craft store had them 70% off after Halloween.
Image credits: rharper38
#29 1st Post. This Year I Created A Different-Looking Pumpkin
Image credits: Kitchen-Bid-8235
#30 I Carved A Happy Little Bokoblin
Image credits: geneviciously
Regardless, every fall, we are treated to a bountiful harvest of cool and creative pumpkin art. So if you feel like seeing more, Bored Panda has got you covered. Check out our articles on expert-level pumpkin carving and our list from 2021 with some of the most eye-catching pumpkin-based art out there.
#31 My Take On An Angler Fish Pumpkin Carving
Image credits: V0LUME
#32 Ghastly I Made For My Work's Pumpkin Decorating Contest
Image credits: pizzapiepants
#33 This Is The Wall Pumpkin
Image credits: AtomLao
#34 Another Mini Pumpkin
I used a Dremel to get the skin off and then used an Xacto knife to cut all the triangles. I wanted them to be scallops (first row) but it wasn’t turning out right so I changed it. Too short for a tea light, so phone light it is.
Image credits: One_List7
#35 First Pumpkin Carving Of The Season
Image credits: Zia_xo
#36 Girlfriend's And My Pumpkins This Year
Image credits: Commercial-Golf-4778
#37 My Jack-O'-Lantern
Image credits: Suspicious-Main-1077
#38 Stunning Tiger Carving
Image credits: aerosolkingdom
#39 A Brigantine-Style Boat That’s Brimming With A Treasure Haul Of Pearly White Gumballs And Candy Gold Doubloons. No Tricks, All The Treats
Image credits: alexandra_churchill
#40 I Was Proud Of My Maleficent Pumpkin Carving
Image credits: jaysaugus
#41 "Skeleton Drinking" - Me, Pumpkin, 2022
Image credits: Proper-Membership-77
#42 The Scream
Image credits: Dec_a_dense
#43 I Won First Prize At My Company's Pumpkin Carving Contest This Year. Not Much Carving, But It Is More Of A Sculptural Piece
Image credits: Gianni_Fadel
#44 My Pumpkin Submission For The Decorating Contest
Image credits: Spicy_Antigen
#45 Salvador Dali
Image credits: TheHerferd
#46 My Latest Carve
Image credits: jnash102287
#47 My Mom Did This For A Pumpkin Carving Contest
Image credits: Jackson_M_Bueller
#48 My Pumpkin This Year
Image credits: winklebone
#49 Carved Pumpkins By Danish Midwives At A Local Hospital
Image credits: TinylittlemouseDK
#50 My Pumpkin For A Painting Contest At Work
Image credits: pumpkin_coff33
#51 Instead Of Carving The Jack-O'-Lantern Myself This Year, I Poked A Bunch Of Small Holes In A Pumpkin And Stuffed The Holes With Peanut Butter
I then let the squirrels go at it for two days. The result is something truly disturbing.
Image credits: adrian.gollner
#52 I Think I Have Arthritis Now... Done With All My Pumpkins For The Year
Image credits: RedBottomsAndChanel
#53 I Made My Pumpkin Into A Portal Turret For Halloween This Year
Image credits: RealWorldJunkie
#54 Andromeda Proxy. Carved Into A Living Pumpkin
Image credits: McFrazzlestache
#55 Thought I'd Carve A Truly Terrifying Pumpkin This Year
Image credits: VeryPickyPenguin
#56 My Gandalf & The Balrog Pumpkin
Went LOTR for my second pumpkin of the year - Gandalf and the Balrog of Morgoth! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
Stencil creation: ~1 hour
Stencil transfer/prep: ~1.5 hours
Carving: ~6 hours
Image credits: shnips
#57 I Carved The Torontoest Pumpkin Of All Time. Happy Halloween
Image credits: depechekat
#58 Happy Halloween! My Pumpkin Is For A Specific Audience
Image credits: jackiejusttrying
#59 My Hollow-Knight-Themed Pumpkin
Image credits: TrappedByDogma
#60 "You Sure About That?" - Carved Pumpkin, 2023
Image credits: McFrazzlestache
#61 Dragon/Basilisk Pumpkin With Shark-Style Double Row Of Teeth
Image credits: loopyelly89
#62 One Last Tribute? I Saw This At A Jack-O'-Lantern Festival
Image credits: Megas_Matthaios
#63 First Real Pumpkin Of The Season
Image credits: pumpkinfreakart
#64 My Pumpkin
Image credits: shutupbrendan
#65 I Carve Pumpkins. People Always Say I Should Sell Them, But I Just Do It For Fun
Image credits: BridgetAmelia
#66 A Big Toothy Grin For This Year's Pumpkin
Image credits: familycyclist
#67 This Is Tator Tooth. He Has No Eyes, I Don't Know If I Want To Ruin It Adding Eyes
Image credits: skywarp85
#68 I Made An M. C. Escher Pumpkin. Had A Costume Too, But Most People Thought I Was Harry Potter
Image credits: captainkeytar
#69 My Pumpkin Carving This Year
Image credits: Erogito776
#70 My Dad Carved Alien Ten Years Ago, But Now He’s Come Full Circle And Carved Predator For His Yearly Pumpkin Carving. Happy Halloween
Image credits: McPatDaPhat
#71 Carved For The Pass Line
Image credits: melditz
#72 I Made A Pumpkin Based On Skull Knight Breaking Through The Eclipse For My Fourth Annual Berserk Jack-O’-Lantern. Let Me Know What You Think, And Happy Halloween
Image credits: Ninjanerd127
#73 My Attempt At A Mera Mera No Mi Pumpkin
Second time ever carving a pumpkin and took 20+ hours so please be gentle with the critique.
Image credits: B00gymanProdigy
#74 Pumpkin Beholder
So I had an idea of a pumpkin beholder. I couldn't get gourds, so used carrots (and a parsnip - thanks Tesco soup mix). Took roughly two episodes of Andor to make, and I had to liberally stabilize the carrots with cocktail sticks/toothpicks so they wouldn't sag. My DnD ancestral guardian/eldritch knight/knowledge cleric halfling for scale. Definitely boss monster-sized.
10/10 - recommend, wasn't impossibly hard, would do it again.
Image credits: ozculain
#75 Finished My Pumpkin For Halloween
Image credits: Ness_Nine
#76 We Went As Leah And Harvey For Halloween! Bonus Chicken Pumpkin
Image credits: lochnessica25
#77 Friend’s Hocus Pocus Pumpkin Carving
Image credits: wheekwheekmeow
#78 "This Is Fine" Pumpkin
Image credits: Johnny33175
#79 My Stranger Things Pumpkin. Happy Halloween
Image credits: CJJJ94
#80 My Jack-O'-Lantern For The Year… This Ought To Scare Them
Image credits: bdwin120
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