Pumpkin: Not Just A Term of Endearment

Happy almost Halloween! Gone are the days of triangle eyes, square noses, and gap-toothed smiles! As I’m sure you’ve seen, pumpkin carving in this millennia is next level. Here are my kids’ pumpkins. Pretty basic compared to the others you’ll see in a moment.

If you’re confused, you’re not alone. The far left pumpkin reads, “MEIJER,” (the hockey team my daughter plays for), the middle is a face, but with a black eye (pumpkin hockey fight), and the far right says, “PIG” (not hockey related. Just. Random.) Last year, my middle carved "TACOS!" into her pumpkin. We really love words in our family. And tacos. Obviously.

My cousin and her family live in Thailand, where pumpkins aren’t easily accessible, so they get creative in their carving mediums. Here are a few food items they’ve carved in lieu of pumpkins.

How cute are these?! 

Back to pumpkins. If we’re going to have a post about incredible pumpkin carvings, we first have to talk about Ray Villafane (www.villafanestudios.com). Villafane is an American sculptor that SLAYS the pumpkin carving scene. No plastic knife, choppy mouth, uneven eyes from this guy. His pumpkins are scary cool.

Look at the detail on the snake skin! Almost TOO lifelike! 

So clever! So fun!

We don’t have all day or I’d post a hundred more of his creations. Give yourself a Halloween treat and Google his other works.

If you like a more classic pumpkin, fear not. Maniac Pumpkin Carvers (maniacpumpkincarvers.com) has got your back. Their pumpkins have been featured at MoMA, the Whitney, and other such commonplace museums. Every year they feature a famous piece from a classic artist and blow everyone’s minds.

Picasso so cool. 

This is not a pumpkin.

Finally, the Pumpkin Geek, aka Alex Wer (www.thepumpkingeek.com). Another amazing talent, and will also take orders if you want- say, your kid’s face on a pumpkin! Or your pug’s mug! You get the picture! (groan.) You must visit his website too. I wanted this post to be at least a little scary, so I was going to post one of his horror movie carvings, but honestly, they creeped me out too much. This was the best I could do for you:

I feel like Edward would also be good at pumpkin carving.

If Covid was a person.

Whatever you do this Halloween, whether it’s trick-or-treating, or dressing up to pass out candy, or tailgating in an ice arena parking lot between your kids’ hockey games with cider mimosas, I hope you have a moderately spooky day!