The Everlasting Pumpkin
Most of the time I’m not a fan of artificial things. I hardly ever approve of fake plants or flowers, no matter the situation. Years back when the artificial foam pumpkins first started hitting stores, I was never going to accept them.
Halloween is all about going out to find the perfect pumpkin and bringing it home to carve and roast up the seeds inside. How can you do any of this with a foam pumpkin?
Eventually, I found the perfect way to carve into these fake pumpkins. I like to use them as address pumpkins. For years, I was carving the same thing into pumpkins year in and year out: our home address. One year, I accidentally bought pie pumpkins instead of carving pumpkins. I needed an electric knife to cut the darn things! That’s when I realized it was time to invest in some everlasting pumpkins.
As the seasons change, it gets darker earlier and having pumpkins illuminated with your address is a great way to make sure people find your home. I have an arbor over our garage door so I place the pumpkins on this ledge each October and I illuminate them with flickering Christmas lights. I found these from Lowes and they work really well. Two strings is the perfect length for 4-5 pumpkins.
Go out and buy yourself some everlasting pumpkins and make your own address pumpkins. It’s very easy. Start by finding a great font, I like to use this font because it looks “spooky.” Print out one number per page large enough to fit onto your pumpkin. Then cut the number out of the paper and pin it to the front of your pumpkin. Trace the number onto the pumpkin and take a sharp knife and cut out the outline of your number; continue with the rest of your address. Cut another hole in the bottom or lower back of the pumpkin in order to feed in the lights. Connect the lights to a timer and you will have flickering pumpkins nightly for the season!
The best part is, you can then store them away and have them ready for next year. And how about this — you can reuse the flickering lights. They’ll make a great accent string on your Christmas tree!
How Spooky is that!
