Pumpkin Carving Party Ideas {With 3 FREE Printables} (she: Brooke)

Happy October to you all!  It’s Brooke from Blissful Roots.  This is easily my favorite time of year!  And while baby boy number four will be here in a matter of weeks, I’m still trying to squeeze in any Halloween crafting, baking, and partying that I can.  We have our other three boys’ birthdays this week, so we’re in full party-mode around our house.  I’m just hoping this little guy waits until after the big party to make his arrival.  My four-year-old was very cordial five years ago, and waited until the day after my twins’ birthday to make his entrance into the world, so I’m crossing my fingers that will happen again (at LEAST the day after all the birthdays, even a few days later would be better!).

Today I have some fun pumpkin carving party ideas, and FREE printables to share with you.  My dad’s side of the family has a fun pumpkin carving party every year, and we’ve only been able to make it a few times.  I wish we could make it more often because we have the best time!  Since we don’t make it to the family carving parties very often, I’ve decided it’s high time to start our own little jack-o-lanter making party.  Here are a few of the ideas I’ve come up with for our party:

You can always make your own invites, or buy ones in a store, but I recently discovered Tiny Prints Halloween invitations.  These are hands-down the cutest invites anywhere!  Check out this adorable invitation that would be perfect for a pumpkin carving party!  You can customize the invitation to say whatever you’d like.  So simple, so adorable, and the perfect way to set the tone for your party!

Once the invites are out, you can begin planning your party.  The thing I love about a pumpkin carving party is that your entertainment is already planned for you!  Carving pumpkins can be a bit time-consuming, so you really don’t need much else going on.  I like the idea of having BYOP (bring your own pumpkin) on the invitation.  That way you don’t have to spend a fortune on the pumpkins, and can put your time, energy, and money elsewhere.

As far as refreshments go, you can ask each guest to bring his/her favorite pumpkin treat, or you can provide them.  My entire November Pinterest board is pretty much devoted to pumpkin eats and treats of ALL kinds.  Click on the link here to hop on over and feast your eyes on a plentiful pumpkin feast!

Now on to the free printables.  The first one is a name card for each carved pumpkin.  When your guests finish carving their pumpkins they can grab a tag, fill it out, and place it next to their creation.  I did use black for the name tags, so you’ll need to have white writing utensils (crayons, pens, paint pens, chalkboard pens, maybe even chalk?) on hand.  You can click here to get your printable jack-o-lantern name tags.  The printable has two tags per page.

Then name tags will help in the “judging” of the pumpkins later on.

Which leads me to my next free printable.  I’ve made up these blank awards to hand out to each and every guest.  You can be the judge, or assign another person at the party (maybe let them know in advance that they’ll be judging and not carving).  The judge will come up with a “Most….” award for each and every jack-o-lantern.  That way everyone goes away a winner!  You could also have a small treat/prize to go along with each award if you’d like.  Click here to print the jack-o-lantern award (two per page just like the name tags).

And for the final printable, I have some fun Halloween matchbox covers.  I made some of these over the summer for the 4th of July (click here to see them), and absolutely LOVED them!  I was thrilled when I realized that a pumpkin carving party would be the perfect excuse to make another set of matchbox covers, just in a spookier theme, rather than patriotic.  Click here for the matchbox printables.  You’ll get 16 per page, and they are meant for the MINI matchboxes, not the large size.

When all the carving, judging, and eating is complete, you can pass out a candle and festive matchbox to each guest, then head outside for the grand lighting!  Make sureto help little ones with the lighting (or use battery operated lights for them).  Once all the jack-o-lanterns are a-glow, be sure you take a picture of the spook-tacular view!

And that’s it!  A fun, creative, memory-making party you and all your guests will enjoy!  I can’t wait to get out pumpkin carving party going.  As I mentioned, with a baby on the way our party maybe later than sooner (hence then need to use this faux jack-o-lantern in my pictures, we haven’t gotten around to any carving just yet), but we’ll get to it- even if it is just for our little family.  My boys had a bit too much fun with their own patriotic matchboxes, so I know they’re going to love having the Halloween ones for their jack-o-lanterns.

Thanks so much for letting me be here with you all today!  I have oodles of Halloween ideas at Blissful Roots this month.  I have our favorite ghost sugar cookie recipe, DIY Halloween gift boxes, $ Store COOKIE Halloween ornaments, and as always some fun printables.

Until next month… when baby boy four will be here!!  I’ll for sure have a bit to share on that, along with my regular November post!  Happy carving!