How to Throw a Pumpkin Carving Party

Fun ideas on how to throw a pumpkin carving party! Once October hits, it’s all about Halloween festivities. One tradition we have is to host a pumpkin carving party. We’re sharing the perfect Halloween party menu, desserts and cute ideas for making a pumpkin carving kits.

Also check out our complete guide for a charming Halloween and 10 charming Halloween ideas.

shot of pumpkins and pumpkins on a table

We’ve been hosting a pumpkin carving party for the past 5 years and it’s one party my family looks forward to every fall. We invite a few friends over with their kiddos and the entire evening is spent outside, carving pumpkins, eating chili and of course, lots of dessert! This year I ordered cakes, cookies and candy from Williams Sonoma to make it even easier! It was all delicious! Did you even know they sell cakes?!

How To Throw A Pumpkin Carving Party Step By Step

Send out invites, to create a sense of occasion and a more personalized vibe.

Create a party menu that is good in batches, like chili and salads (see below for some recipe links!)

For the adults, create batch cocktails for ease (links below!)

Most of the supplies are linked below, but some of the most important supplies are the carving tools, towels, pumpkins, black Sharpie for making faces on the pumpkins, pumpkin stencils, bowl for putting the seeds in, desserts and candy!

For the decor, line the table with pumpkins, fall corn and foliage. Add flowers as a centerpiece and bowls of candy down the middle.

Turn up the Halloween tunes and carve away!

Pumpkin Carving Party Invitations

For the pumpkin carving party invitations, check out Paperless Post and Evite. They both have great online Halloween invitation ideas that are easy to send, trackable and great for communication prior to the event. Saves paper and time!

pumpkin carving kit from williams sonoma

Create a Pumpkin Carving Kit for the Kids!

Create pumpkin carving kits for each guests. Here’s what you can include in them:

Glow-in-the-dark skeleton apron for adults or kids.

Heavy duty carving kits.

Black towel for messes.

Tie it all together with a pretty ribbon and place it near a pumpkin on each table setting.

It’s not a pumpkin carving party without the chili! This is our favorite recipe and you can make it in a slow cooker. We served it in Apilco Reglisse black bowls with copper spoons.

Cornbread goes really well with chili and we have two amazing recipes. Try our cranberry orange cornbread or our cornbread muffins.

If you don’t want to cook, make an impressive Halloween meat and cheese platter. It’s stunning!

Sausage and Peppers is a great option for a quick sheet pan meal. Use only orange and green peppers for a fun Halloween vibe.

Make a festive fall salad with fresh figs and pears as a side dish.

bowl of chili, part of the pumpkin carving party food menu

Halloween Desserts For Your Pumpkin Carving Party

For this kind of party, keep it easy and order dessert. I ordered all of the desserts for the party from Williams Sonoma. They also have the best Halloween candy selection!

We served pumpkin marshmallows, candy corn gummies, Halloween lollipops, Halloween sugar cookies and the cutest chocolates you’ve ever seen!!

For the main dessert, serve something show-stopping like this Black Rose Red Velvet Cake. It was delivered from Williams Sonoma and I kept it in the freezer until the day of the party. The cake was so moist and had delicious layers of red velvet cake. It tastes even better than it looks! They have several Halloween cakes, you can see them all here.

Halloween Desserts

If you want to make a delicious homemade dessert, here are some great options!

Halloween Dessert Platter

Black Velvet Cupcakes

Halloween Chocolate Dirt Cups

Brown Butter Mummy Rice Krispies

Marble Candy Apples

I couldn’t resist these caramel apples from Maggie Louise!

Halloween Cocktails!

We made a delicious Hard Apple Cider Punch with Kombucha for this recipe and served it in a beautiful pumpkin shaped punch bowl! It was such a hit. See below for more Halloween cocktail and drink ideas.

pumpkin shaped punch bowl with punch in it

How to Make Candy Corn Vodka Shots

Purple Gin and Tonics

Monster Mash Lemongrass Punch

Black Sangria Recipe

Harvest Punch Recipe

Fall Sangria

shot of cocktails in mugs for pumpkin carving party

Halloween Drinks for Kids

If there are kids at the party, here are two drink recipes we love making for them!

Easy Three Ingredient Butter Beer

Three Ingredient Halloween Punch for Kids

shot of child standing behind pumpkins on a table

Make sure to have empty bowls lying around for all of the pumpkin insides! It can get very messy carving pumpkins, so keeping things as tidy as possible helps a lot with clean up. Old buckets work well for this too!

Top Tips For Your Pumpkin Carving Party

Since carving pumpkins can get very messy, hosting it outside is ideal. Layer fabric over a table to keep the table clean. I bought yards of fabric at the craft store to use for the table.