How to Carve a Halloween Pumpkin - How to pick a halloween pumpkin

Hi, this is Shana Bethune on behalf of Expert Village and I'm here to talk to you about selecting a pumpkin. Now before you select a pumpkin first think about the design you'd like to carve into the pumpkin. Because the pumpkin you choose really depends on the design you're carving. For example if you're planning on carving a wider face or design, you'd choose a rounder pumpkin like this one, but if you think you'd like to make something a little bit longer, you'd choose something that looks more like this one. Also when selecting a pumpkin you want to make sure that you choose one that's free of any sort of scratches or dents because if it has any scratches in it, that means that the surface is going to rot a lot faster and if it has dents it's going to be much more difficult to carve and you might not be able to transfer the design that you want onto the pumpkin. Also when you're choosing your pumpkin, make sure that you pay attention to the length of the stem, because the stem is attached to the lid which is what you'll use to put on top of the pumpkin later after you've carved it. So if you have a stem that is too short, like this one over here, it's going to be kind of difficult to take the lid on and off. So, it's better to choose something that's a lot longer like this one and later on if you decide it's too long, you can cut it down a little bit. But overall the most important thing when choosing a pumpkin is to make sure that it is very clean looking on the outside and it's free of scratches and dents.