i have a ceramic "carved" pumpkin with a shiny metallic interior, i throw in a short string of white lights and call it a day.

Sometimes we carve pumpkins but we always have at least one intact pumpkin as it stays fresher longer.

I always keep some uncarved pumpkins until Thanksgiving. They can last longer than people think. I actually had some small "tiger" pumpkins I bought last September that finally bit the dust last week.

With the exception of the white ones, these little guys lasted over a year. :-)

you have to be careful tho.... they can explode suddenly.

For a second I thought that said CRAVING. But no, and no, in any case : )

I don't carve pumpkins. I soak them in bleach water for 30 min and dry. I spray paint them and put them in the front door planters with leaves and rats on them for halloween. Then take off the rats for thanksgiving, I then paint faces on them, dress them

Europe is where I live. Here carved pumpkins are used for halloween. They are made to look as mean as possible. It flew in from America, but without the 'accompanying' Thanksgiving.

So I dislike halloween and all the nastiness around it a lot. Satan's holiday with all the witches and horror. I detest Satan and the distorting influence he has on mankind and all the suffering that followed, so I certainly do not 'celebrate' anything like that.

I know many people do not see it that way, but if people start to understand that Satan as the chief fallen angel really is a person and how he hates you with a vengeance and is your biggest enemy by far, and you've tasted of his evils more than you wanted to swallow, believe me: there is no fun in halloween anymore.

On the other hand, I have used uncarved pumpkins as outdoor decoration, but together with heather in a nice autumn display. And I love Christmas, but not for the Santa figure, but for God so loving the world that He sent his only son to save anyone willing.

So carved: no.

How is that in America? Are carved pumpkins tied to halloween as much as they are in Europe? Or can you have 'nice and friendly' carvings, not being associated with halloween at all?

Oh yes almost everyone has a lighted carved pumpkins on Halloween night here in the US. I don't because I have no kids on my street. The custom was brought over by the Irish. The Irish carved turnips on Halloween to chase away ghouls. US changed it to pumpkins because we had more pumpkins than turnips. Quite a few of our customs were brought over by family when they immigrated from Europe.

functionthenlook, thanks for the answer. Those customs were long lost here in Europe. Maybe not in Ireland/UK though? But they are being revived by shops who use anything pagan to sell more. Unfortunately they 'forgot' Thanksgiving.

Halloween on the Continent of Europe is usually not for chasing away ghouls, but for inviting them. Satanist groups 'pray' for bad things to happen, ritual slaughters are being brought.

A few years ago we went to a holiday park and they had halloween as a theme in September already, without us knowing it. At 5 pm all hell broke lose. Hundreds of people came in a horror parade with the most frightening wounds and weapons to inflict torture. Many even bigger children started to cry and flee away. I remember one on these actors chasing a boy of about ten years old, who got real traumatized by this experience.

It's a mad world...

Glad to hear it is not that nasty in the States though. Keep it nice and wholesome, please.

With so much worldwide hunger, I can't in good conscience waste any food product including pumpkins.

It is a tradition and we try to do different faces every year.

I don't carve them anymore, I like to keep things simple. I just fill my wheelbarrow and roll them around to where I want to decorate. I did save the seeds from the best of each variety, one pie pumpkin and one jack-o-lantern, for planting next year because you get so few pumpkin seeds in a packet these days.

Waste of exceptionally good food - bake a pie instead, give the rinds to the chickens! Just not into the whole Halloween thing anyway. Not only does it celebrate the evil side, "trick or treat" is extortion taught to children. Yeah, I know...very Scrooge-y.

Maria Privat That is horrible what happened at the park. I would be livid if my child was there. Only sickos scare children. Halloween is for all ages in the US, but first and foremost it is for children. For adults only (no children allowed) we have scare houses. There is some for profit scare houses, but also charitable organizations put them up around Halloween to raise funds. They rent a building, charge admission, and decorate them very scary. People walk through and get the heck scared out of them. I never been to one, I don't like being scared. For families the amusement parks decorate with child friendly characters and it is fun. School have fun Halloween parties and parades for the children. Of course Halloween night is the best. The children go from house to house collecting candy. I love Halloween night. Not only is it a family event, but a community event. At my last house I loved sitting on the front porch seeing the children dressed up, conversing with their parents. and giving out candy. We would blast Halloween music outside so the whole neighborhood could hear it and the kids would dance up and down the streets. Fun!

Janet H. Designs There is two kind of pumpkins grown. Carving and baking pumpkins. It is not wasting food carving pumpkins. Carving pumpkins are not good to eat, they make grainy, stringy pies. When I am done with my pumpkins I just throw them into the field and the wild animals eat them.

functionthenlook is right. Along with grainy/stringy, carving pumpkins also tend to be too watery for baking. You want the smaller ones often labeled "sugar" or "pie" pumpkins at the market.

^^and chickens, cows, microorganisms in a compost pile will still eat pumpkins if they've been carved. They're great for dog food, too. Those critters don't mind a scary or funny face! Even our cats got in on the action this year and were nibbling on the pieces we cut out of our jack o lanterns. That was a surprise as cats don't seem to go for raw veggies generally.

I've LOTS of pumpkins sent to zoos...the elephants like them.

What a sterling suggestion if the pumpkin was still good. I bet a hippo would eat a punkin too.

I live on the main street through a small town. The street shuts down for Halloween and people go all out with their decorations. But, we live one block down from the festivities so no one comes to our house. So I didn't put out anything this year. Last year was our first Halloween in this house and I had all my stuff out, pumpkins and all! And we were so lonely....we had two families stop on their way to the block party. We were dark this year (it was very sad for me because I love Halloween!).

In our small mountain town the grocery store throws a parking lot Halloween party every year. Free popcorn, cotton candy, hot chocolate and hot dogs. The churches have trunk or treat parties in their parking lots. There is lots of fun festivity and music, and plenty of hay bales for seating. This activity a so much fun and invites so much friendly interaction in what is a highly Christian neighborhood with several churches represented. It is a lot of fun but has left our house also void of trick or treater children. So we go to my daughters house and help her pass out goodies to all the kids that have been to the community party, then trek through the neighborhoods for even more candy. Halloween is a really big event here. There are not so many pumpkins smashed as in other towns I have lived in. In fact, people "curb" the pumpkins so that others can take them if they wish. We have gathered up some to bottle and to eat as squash and bake the delicious seeds, salted and buttered (yummy and also a European tradition). I think the kids love being seen in their costumes and I love telling them just how great they look. Kids here are mostly accompanied by parents, only the oldest are on their own but in groups.

Given the amount of food waste associated with carving pumpkins, we wondered if anyone had ever carved a gourd while it was still green and been able to reproduce a jack-o-lantern?