Halloween is supposed to be a scary holiday and all, but the reason for the terror should not be “I severed an artery while carving the whiskers on my cat o’lantern.” You can create beautiful hollowed-out gourds without harming yourself or your family, whether it’s with the tools you already have in your knife drawer or with a special pumpkin-carving kit.

You might sneer at commercial tools especially for jack o’lantern making, but a test by our sibling publication found that these tools do exactly what they’re designed to: carve through pumpkin rinds with clear and accurate lines without being so sharp that users risk injuring themselves. However, a few key safety tips no matter what you do:

Do decorative carving before you gut the pumpkin.
. If you don’t have to put the blade all the way through, don’t.

Don’t let kids under 14 carve. That’s a general guideline: your kids may vary. Of course, anyone old enough to hold a marker can draw a design that an adult or older teen can carve for them.

How to carve pumpkins safely this Halloween [Consumer Reports]

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