A Happy Halloween with no pumpkin nor tea lights…

Halloween is fast approaching, but just sometimes you can’t always get hold of pumpkins when you want so what do you do? Today’s post is sharing tips and tricks with you so that you can still achieve a Happy Halloween with no pumpkin nor tea lights to hand.

So how can you do a jack o’lantern without a pumpkin and the essential tea lights?

Well, we hunted high and low for a pumpkin. Of course, the kids wanted to do one each. That would mean three pumpkins then. There were no pumpkins to be seen anywhere in our area. All we could find was some wierd shaped squash which we promptly ruled out, just oranges, satsumas, the usual orange coloured fruit. A weekend of searching and we came home empty handed…You may wonder where on earth are we? in France…

I didn’t want to upset the kids. We carve pumpkins every year, without fail. It is the one thing my hubby is really good at. He’s always been the one that is chief pumpkin carver. But this year, well just maybe it would be the same this Halloween… Then the light bulb moment today, and just in time, I suddenly thought “why not just use apples instead. Big ones, as red as we could find.”

So with a spring in our step, the kids on their bikes, me on foot, we sauntered down the steep hill to the local corner shop to see what fruit or veg they had on offer, that could possibly double up as a mini pumpkin.

We walked around the fruit and veg section, severeal times to make sure we had not missed any potential contender. Melon, no, wrong colour. Mango, no, a stone in the middle, might be tricky to carve.
Tomatoes too soft. Oranges too tricky as they have all the fleshy segments, that might be really difficult to carve. Marrow, a bit too skinny.
Then we saw the apples, hidden down below in big wooden crates, big shiny, red, rustic coloured apples. “These will be perfect!” I exclaimed.
Not being happy to buy just one each, the kids chose two, one for each hand. Luckily they weren’t that pricey, so after a quick walk and a bit of fresh air, we headed back home to start the project.
Quick cup of tea then down to work.
Spike and King Julien headed straight into the kitchen, found some not-too-sharp knives and started with their creativity, having watched some You Tube videos for inspiration earlier in the day… Tuna was a little more reluctant, pretending to read her book on the bed hidden away in her bedroom…
Very quickly the mini pumpkin look-alikes appeared.
Whilst the boys carved, I searched for tea lights. Oh dear… We had just been at the shops, and now there were no tea lights anywhere. “Well, we will just have to make do with the birthday candles!” I said. They were still lurking by the sink after King Julien’s birthday cake saga. They obviously knew they would be needed again…

Once the boys moved onto their second creations, Tuna arrived to carefully sculpt her own.
Here are the carved results, carefully displayed on a bed of amazing Autumn leaves we found on the way home…

So you see, even if you can’t find a pumpkin, you can still achieve a Happy Halloween with no pumpkin nor tea lights.  There is always another option, another way of creating those magical moments… and you know what? This is what memories are made of, and this was perhaps our happiest Halloween miniature sized!

Hope you’re having a Happy Halloween!

We’ve been sent some truly lovely Halloween recipes which we still want to put on to the website, as they are such fun ideas, so do keep stopping by to look. They will be up soon!

What did you do for Halloween?

The Lunchbox World Teamx