It’s National Pumpkin Day, a holiday perfectly timed with the annual spooky season when gourds of all shapes and sizes are brought into the home: some carved, some eaten and some placed decoratively across a dining table. To celebrate this momentous day, SPY Senior Editor Taylor Galla tested some of the most viral pumpkin carving hacks that have been going around to see if they actually help make the process easier.
Read More: The Best Pumpkin Carving Kits of 2022
2022 Pumpkin Carving Hacks
@brunchwithbabs 🎃Do’s and Don’ts of Pumpkin Carving 🎃It is a treasured tradition in our family to carve jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. But with all the yuck and mess, sometimes my kids would quit the project before we even started. Babs’ Do’s and Don’ts for Pumpkin Carving, saves the mess and speeds up carving so you can have the perfect jack-o-lantern with no mess and no fuss. Happy Halloween 🎃XO Babs 1. Carve from bottom. That way you have the stem to hold onto and you can easily slip the pumpkin right over a candle or flashlight. 2. Hold pumpkin in your lap to carve. You will have a much steadier pumpkin to cut. 3. Use a red dry erase marker to sketch your design. It erases easily and if you miss a spot, it blends in. 4. Use a hand mixer to clean out your pumpkin. 5. Use cookie cutters and a rubber mallet to carve your design. 6. Cover all cut surfaces with Vaseline to keep the pumpkin moist after carving. Pumpkins should last 1-2 weeks carved! 7. Sprinkle some cinnamon on the inside top of your pumpkin for festive pumpkin spice smell when a candle is lit inside the pumpkin. 🎃 #pumpkincarving
Don’t get me wrong, I love Babs, but anything labeled as a “hack” on Tik Tok is automatically suspicious to me. Can you really fold a t-shirt in seconds using a plastic device? Does that TikTok skincare trend actually minimize your pores?
Because it’s the season of gourds I was carving pumpkins this past weekend and decided to put the bottom carve hack to the test. I’ve included my thoughts below, as well as some comparison photos to my boyfriend’s pumpkin that was carved top-down.
Should You Carve a Pumpkin From The Bottom?
Yes, you should. I decided to give the bottom pumpkin carve a try this past weekend and not only did it make the carving process easier, I’ve also noted anecdotally that my pumpkin is staying fresher than my boyfriend’s, who carved his from the top.
Just like Babs says, it was it way easier to plop the pumpkin on my lap, hold the stem between my legs and carve.
Carving from the top is picturesque in that the stem becomes a top you can pull on and off to scoop out the guts and switch out the candle. However, since the stem was once the pumpkin’s connection to its life-giving vine, cutting off that connection can cause it to decay faster giving your once-cute pumpkin a creepy saggy quality.
One thing to note is it’s harder to position the candle or light inside when your only big opening is the bottom of the pumpkin. It’s also harder to remove the bottom than the top because you don’t have the stem serving as a handle of sorts.
Overall, I’d say this pumpkin trick is, in fact, a treat and you should use it during your pumpkin carve this weekend.