28 Fun and Festive Pumpkin Decorating Ideas for Halloween

By BH&G Holiday Editors
Updated June 30, 2020
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Credit: Adam Albright
Check out our unique pumpkin decorating ideas. This Halloween, your front porch will be sporting a new take on the traditional jack-o'-lantern. Check out these new ways to paint, sculpt, and embellish your pumpkins.
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Dried Flower Pumpkin

This gorgeous pumpkin pops with richly-colored dried blooms. To create, glue dried flowers on a faux pumpkin and finish with a real dried pumpkin stem. This stunning flower pumpkin makes a pretty fall centerpiece or front porch decoration.

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Spooky Black and Gold

Credit: Adam Albright

Who says pumpkins have to be funny or scary? Make your own modern display by using craft wire to create a festive phrase and attaching it to a black painted pumpkin. To create a long-lasting decoration, use a faux pumpkin instead of a real one.

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Marble Painted Pumpkins

Credit: Michael Piazza

These gorgeous marbled pumpkins are made with one surprising material: Nail polish. And getting the look is easy! Simply combine your favorite nail polish colors, such as this 10-Piece Nail Polish Set, ($10, Target) with water and dip small faux pumpkins into the marbled mixture for a colorful display of gourds.

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Polka Dotted Pumpkins

Credit: Michael Piazza

The secret to this fun polka dotted pumpkin is hiding in your kitchen drawers. To get the look, use a melon baller, such as OXO Softworks Melon Baller, ($10, Target) to carve out circles from the pumpkin rind, then place them back in the holes the opposite way to create a fun contrasting look.

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Owl Pumpkin

Credit: Style: "Target Levels"

With minimal carving and a little bit of glue, plain pumpkins become cute owls. The secret embellishment to these easy owl pumpkins? Sunflower seeds create sweet pumpkin faces.

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Floral Etched Pumpkins

Credit: Michael Piazza

Rather than carve your pumpkins the traditional way, use a scraping tool to etch a gorgeous design into the front. The lighter flesh of the pumpkin will contrast with the darker color of the rind to create a pretty design that really pops.

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Monogram Pumpkin

Credit: Style: "Target Levels"
Get free monogram stencils

For a unique pumpkin decorating idea, emblazon your initials on pumpkins to welcome trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. Print letters from your favorite font(s) and use them as carving patterns for your pumpkins.

Editor's Tip: You could also trace the letters onto pumpkins and paint them for a similar effect.

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Creepy Crawlies

Credit: Adam Albright

Create a not-so-scary creation decorated with creepy crawly spiders—faux, of course. Use hot glue to attach plastic spiders to the outside of a white pumpkin and set it on the front porch for a festive display.

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Green Jack-o'-Lantern

Credit: cmr# 3374688
Get the free face stencil

You can't go wrong with a triangle nose and eyes with a crooked grin. But when the traditional jack-o'-lantern design is carved into a green pumpkin, it stands out amidst its orange counterparts.

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All Aboard

Credit: Adam Albright

The kids will love helping with this festive Halloween display! Plus, this Halloween craft doubles as a fun family activity! Let everyone choose their own pumpkin at the patch, then have each person paint part of the train onto their pumpkins. Then, line them up on the front porch for the neighbors to admire.

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Boo-tiful Button Pumpkin

Get the free 'boo' stencil

Give this pretty pumpkin a ghostly message in a few minutes with some glue, a jar of black buttons, and an elegant bow. Paint the pumpkin stem using black crafts paint; let dry. Print a Halloween message in a large font from your computer; cut out individual letters with scissors. Position the letters on the pumpkin, trace around them with a pencil, and remove. Fill each letter with black buttons, such as this pack of Black Buttons, ($8, Michaels) adhering them with glue. Tie a black wire-edged ribbon into a bow around the pumpkin stem to finish.

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Tangled Web Pumpkin

Decorate a pumpkin with a knotted spiderweb. Using heavy, metallic black stitching braid, cut web "spokes" to the desired lengths and knot each end. Tack the ends in place on the pumpkin using short black map pins. Circle the intersecting web pieces in the same manner, knotting the ends and using pins to hold the braid in place. Complete the look by hot-gluing a spider or two onto the web.

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Grim Reaper Pumpkin Tower

Watch out—this menacing jack-o'-lantern dude may be looking for you. With a tall stature and snarling face, he is the keeper of Halloween fright.

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Flower Power Pumpkins

Metal cookie cutters create a fantastic floral design on pumpkins of all colors. With polka dots and flower pumpkins, you'll love having this feminine take on Halloween decor.

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Etched Flowers Pumpkin

Illuminate flowers instead of jack-o'-lantern faces with light-up pumpkins. For this blooming pumpkin, use an apple corer to carve out the flower centers. Then use a triangle clay loop tool to etch petal designs around the holes—scraping away only the pumpkin surface.

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Glittery Pumpkin

Credit: Style: "Color tone - warm"

Glam up a pumpkin with silver sequins, rhinestones, and a metallic silver spider for a fancy glitter pumpkin that is all-too chic.

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Green-Face Monster Gourd

Get the free face stencil

Search farmer's markets for unique varieties of pumpkins and gourds as alternatives to classic orange pumpkins. Then carve out cute pumpkin faces for an irresistably adorable new look.

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Pumpkin Man

Credit: 100091972.tif

This tower of pumpkins mimics his winter cousin: the snowman. Start with three pumpkins in graduating sizes. Drill a hole through the center bottom of each pumpkin. Feed the drilled pumpkins onto a thick dowel. Poke stick arms into the sides of the middle pumpkin and drape a scarf of fall garland around base of the top pumpkin. Draw a jack-o'-lantern face onto the top pumpkin and crown with a dapper black chapeau.

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Fruit-Face Pumpkin

For a sweetly smiling pumpkin, use dried fruit, berries, leaves, and other natural elements to create a face. Simply plan your design then hot-glue the objects in place.

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Spider Pumpkin

Get the free spider pattern

For those who don't shriek at the sight of spiders, download and print our free pattern, enlarge to a size to fit your pumpkin, and cut out the pattern pieces. Trace the pieces onto construction paper, using the photo as a color guide. Layer the eye pieces and secure with crafts glue. Glue the eyes, mouth, and fangs to the pumpkin. Poke four wires into the pumpkin on each side of the face and bend to form eight scurrying legs.

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Powered-Up Pumpkins

Whip out the power drill to carve intricately detailed pumpkins. These faces were sketched first, then drilled to make evenly spaced holes along the drawn lines. Light up pumpkins with a small candle or light.

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Pretty Pumpkin Pots

Three pumpkins—two orange and one white—form a clever keeper for mums or other fall blossoms. Cutouts from the white pumpkin form striking accents on the base, while a smaller pumpkin holds the flowerpot.

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Leaning Tower of Pumpkins

Stacked pumpkins are a Halloween architectural treat. Choose four pumpkins in graduated sizes, hollow them out, and carve simple geometric shapes into each one. Cut a hole in the top of each pumpkin slightly smaller than the base of the pumpkin that will sit on top of it. Stack the pumpkins, with tops off, to test their fit. If needed, carve larger openings so the pumpkins nestle slightly into one another. Or push a sturdy metal garden stake through the center of the tower to secure the stack. Place the lid back on the top pumpkin.

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Funny Face Pumpkin

Instead of carving, use found objects when decorating pumpkins. We raided the sewing basket to design this clever personality: spools of thread for the eyes; a spool of thread and bobbin for the nose; and a tape measure for the mouth.

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Lacy Pumpkin

Use lace to create fancy and fashionable pumpkins. Lay lace fabric over the pumpkin, gathering it at the bottom with your hand, to determine the location for the stem opening. Remove the lace. Cut a small circle (for the stem) with scissors and lay the lace over the pumpkin, inserting the stem through the opening. Gather the lace at the pumpkin bottom, trimming the excess, and secure the lace in place using running stitches in a wheel-spoke pattern.

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Junk Pumpkins

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For a fun take on decorating pumpkins, grab odds and ends—door hinges, upholstery tacks, old keys—from the junk drawer and add embellishments.

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Pumpkin Cars

For a new pumpkin decorating idea, stage a Halloween car chase with automobiles crafted from pumpkins and gourds. Then choose your drivers. We opted for a raven and a mouse as our racing creatures.

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Gauzy-Glow Pumpkin

When darkness falls, this shrouded pumpkin lights up and casts an eerie aura. The secret? Cheesecloth brushed with glow-in-the dark paint.

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By BH&G Holiday Editors