How to Carve a Pumpkin (Classic Jack-O'-Lantern Step-by-Step)

Grab a fresh pumpkin - heavy for its size, with a stem still attached and a flat-enough bottom that it won't roll on the table. Set it on a cutting board or a few layers of newspaper because this is going to get messy.

Lay out your tools: a serrated kitchen knife for the lid, a small paring knife for the face, a pumpkin scoop (or just a sturdy metal spoon), a black permanent marker for sketching, and a battery tealight for lighting it later. A bowl on the side catches the seeds. That's it - no pricey pumpkin-carving kit required, though a $5 kit does come with a nice serrated scoop if you carve more than one.

Draw a circle around the stem about four inches across - big enough for your hand and the scoop to fit through. Cut on the marker line with a serrated kitchen knife, angling the blade inward toward the center as you go. That angle is the trick: it leaves a ledge inside the pumpkin so the lid drops back in without falling through.

Saw with short back-and-forth strokes, keeping the knife tip aimed at the center of the pumpkin. Once you've cut all the way around, work the stem upward to free the lid. Twist gently if it sticks - the pulp on the underside grips the rim.

Reach inside with a pumpkin scoop or a sturdy spoon and pull out the seeds and stringy orange pulp. Drop everything straight into a bowl as you go - don't dump it on the counter, you'll regret it.

Scrape the inside walls until they feel smooth and pale, especially the section behind where you'll cut the face. A thinner front wall is way easier to carve and the light shines through brighter when you're done. Most people stop scraping too early; keep going until the walls feel like the flesh of a melon, not stringy.

Don't throw the seeds out. Rinse them in a colander to wash off the orange goo, dry them on a paper towel, and follow how to roast pumpkin seeds for the easy oven method - they're a free snack out of the same pumpkin you're decorating.

Use a black permanent marker to sketch the face directly onto the front of the pumpkin. For a classic look, draw two triangle eyes, a smaller triangle nose, and a wide mouth with pointed teeth - alternating top and bottom like a zigzag.

Sketch loose at first, then go back over your favorite lines a second time to make them thicker. The marker line is your cut guide, so the bolder it is, the less you'll need to squint while you're carving. If you make a mistake, wipe it off with a wet paper towel before the ink sets - washable markers come off even easier than permanent, and any leftover ink will get sliced away when you cut anyway.

Switch to the small paring knife. Push the tip straight into the pumpkin along one of the triangle eye lines and saw gently along the marker mark, keeping the blade perpendicular to the pumpkin's surface. Cut the full triangle, then push the loose piece in or out with your thumb - it'll pop free.

Repeat for the second eye and the nose. Take your time and let the knife do the work; if you're sawing hard, you're cutting in the wrong place. The walls you scraped down in step 3 should be about half an inch thick now, which a sharp paring knife handles in one easy pass per line.

Cut along the top lip line of the mouth, then the bottom lip line. Don't cut between the teeth yet. Once the top and bottom outlines are through the skin, go back and make a short cut between every two teeth - top to bottom of the mouth opening - so each tooth stands alone.

Push the chunks of pumpkin out from the inside one by one. The teeth that are left should be roughly the same width and stand a little proud of the mouth opening. If a tooth looks lopsided, trim a sliver off the wider side with the paring knife to even it out.

For extra fang-y teeth like the DaveHax demo pumpkin, draw the teeth tall and pointed instead of short and square, and skip cutting all the way through between them - just slice the skin off the front so the orange flesh shows white when lit.

Drop a battery tealight inside the pumpkin and set the lid back on. The face glows orange through the carved openings - exactly the effect you wanted.

Battery tealights are way better than real tea candles for a porch pumpkin. They don't blow out in the wind, they don't scorch the inside of the lid, they don't risk a fire if a costume brushes the pumpkin, and they last 24-48 hours on one set of batteries. If you do use a real candle, set the pumpkin on a tile or concrete surface (not wood), keep the lid slightly cracked so heat escapes, and don't leave it lit overnight.

For a brighter glow, swap the tealight for a small LED puck light or a string of fairy lights bunched at the bottom. Fairy lights are especially good for pumpkins with lots of small carved holes, like the spider-web design.

Once you've nailed the classic, the same prep-and-carve flow works for any design. Just draw a different face on the front and cut along the new lines.

Four favorites from the source video:

Spider-Man web - draw the eyes near the top, then radial lines out from a center point, then connect those lines with curved web strands. Carve the eyes through. For the web lines, only cut the skin off so the orange flesh shows white when lit (don't cut all the way through).

Batman logo - sketch an oval outline, then the bat silhouette inside it. Carve the oval and the negative space around the bat through; leave the bat itself intact. This one looks unbelievable from across the yard.

Monogram or message - press plastic message-board letters into the pumpkin skin in two rows, then carve away the skin between them so the letters show as orange-on-white. You can spell a name, "BOO," or whatever else.

Disco-ball pattern - skip drawing entirely. Poke holes in a grid pattern all over the pumpkin with a Phillips screwdriver or a drill bit. Hang the pumpkin from a string in the porch and the light beams shine out in every direction.