It wouldn’t be Halloween without jack-o’-lanterns. For many families, carving the pumpkin together is a beloved tradition. Don’t make a trip to the emergency room, or the day you burned the house down, part of your family’s Halloween lore.
Pumpkin Carving Safety Tips
- Prepare your area by laying out some newspaper for the messy stuff and having plenty of towels or paper towels handy.
- Choose the best tools. Pumpkin carving tools are generally safer than kitchen knives. Inexpensive pumpkin carving kits are easy to find, but be sure to buy extras as they are not very durable and you don’t want to wind up resorting to kitchen knives or running back to the store at the last minute.
- Clean up before you start and as you go. Your pumpkin, hands, and tools should be clean and dry to avoid slips. That means cleaning up after you clean out the guts of the pumpkin, and giving everything a good wipe down now and then as you carve.
- The actual carving and cutting should be adults-only. Let the kids draw their designs on the pumpkins, clean out the guts, and “supervise” your handiwork from a safe distance.
- When carving, make small, controlled cuts. Don’t force it. It is too easy to suddenly puncture through the pumpkin and your hand, or slip and cut yourself.
- Clean any spilled guts off the floor right away. They are very slippery and can lead to a fall.
The Better Way to Your Jack-O’-Lantern
Candles are traditional, but they pose several dangers, and they really don’t perform as well as today’s alternatives. Candles can catch the pumpkin on fire, leading to a house fire, and they can catch costumes on fire when you have trick-or-treaters.
There are many types of battery-operated lights for jack-o’-lanterns, including color-changing lights, strobe lights, and those which mimic the effect of real candles.
About Altrumedia
