Pumpkins are probably the best of all green Halloween decorations:  they’re 100% organic, they’re the perfect color for Halloween, and they are nutritious too.  Our favorite pumpkin decorations are Jack-O-Lanterns.  Every year we set aside an evening for making them.  Here are a few tips for carving your Halloween pumpkins:

1) Line your work area with old newspapers.  This makes cleanup easy, and allows you to reuse any old newspaper you have laying around.

2) For help with making the faces on your Halloween pumpkins, go through your kitchen cabinets to find just the right shapes.  Sometimes the bottom of a drinking glass, pepper grinder, or spice container is the perfect shape for an eye, or a mouth.  Just trace the bottom of the container right onto the pumpkin, and carve.

3) For more complicated designs, draw them on paper first, and cut out the designs.  Attach to your pumpkin with toothpicks or tape, and rub on a little cornstarch or baby powder.  When you remove the paper pattern, the powder remains, giving you a guide for cutting.

4) No-carve pumpkins:  Let small children use up scraps of old fabric, buttons, or shapes cut from colorful cardboard packaging by gluing on their own pumpkin designs.

5) What to do with your pumpkins after the carving is done?  For a nutritious snack, you can make roasted pumpkin seeds, or for a sweet treat, make pumpkin pie squares.  Also, used up Jack-O-Lanterns make great composting material.