Walking around town, you may find some neatly decorated pumpkins in front of houses and stores and fall in love with the idea of making one of your own. I mean, what’s not to love? They’re pretty and designing them seems fun. But as you begin to fantasize about your pumpkin decorating dreams, you’ll inevitably begin to realize the real problems with carving: it’s a long, tedious process which ultimately results in the pumpkin molding over just days later. It’s like Sisyphus and his rock. You work so hard designing your pumpkin just to have it crash and burn a couple days later; who’d want to do all that? To see how difficult and challenging decorating really is, we here at The Lance did it for your reading pleasure.

The process started at the beginning of the week. Each writer of The Lance either went pumpkin picking or picked one up from the store. I personally got two pumpkins on sale and brought them to class for the big day. Overall, no big deal so far, and I’m glad it didn’t hurt my wallet. 

On the day of the decorating, we all brought our pumpkins and got ready to decorate. MAJOR DISCLAIMER: HAVE A GARBAGE BAG OR OLD NEWSPAPERS. Pumpkin decorating is not for the faint of heart. Gutting the pumpkin, painting it, and throwing out the remains is a messy and somewhat disgusting process. Making sure you don’t make too much of a mess will make the clean up so much better. Also, I wouldn’t recommend using a dollar store carving kit. Trying to spoon out all of the seeds and the pulp took at least 10 minutes and was probably the most annoying thing I’ve done all week.

But here’s the fun part: designing the pumpkin! I personally carved my pumpkin in a challenge between me and fellow writer Daniel Oh to see who could make the better pumpkin. I found the process to be… interesting. With my dollar store knife in hand, stabbing into the pumpkin was like a game of roulette. I either hit the jackpot and stabbed square into the pumpkin, or I barely made a dent and almost ended up cutting myself. The competition between Daniel and me made the process so much more fun though, as it gave me a reason to keep on going despite the relentless cutting and my tired arm. Senior Staff Writer Amanda Haenelt can attest to how tiring carving is, as she said, “I lost feeling in my hand but I think it was worth it!” 

And while we may have carved our pumpkins, others, like Managing Editor Annabelle Lee & Staff Writer Madison Kosmark, spent the period painting their pumpkins. Lee painted her pumpkin in the likeness of Frankenstein. When asked about her experience painting pumpkins, Lee stated, “I loved it! I’ve never decorated a pumpkin before but I’ve always wanted to. I think my pumpkin turned out great and I would definitely do it again.” Kosmark felt similarly, as she states, “I thought [pumpkin painting] was a lot of fun, I got to be creative with a lot of people I don’t normally talk to in class and would definitely do it again.”

While tiring and probably a waste of time, I thought the process was fun. Sure, the pumpkin molded over in the days that followed, but that isn’t the point of decorating a pumpkin. It’s not meant to last forever, and that’s okay. I was just happy I got to have some fun with my friends and would definitely do it again. 

To check out our day carving up pumpkins, check out our photo gallery below and TikTok page located on the QR Code: