How to make hedgehog pumpkins!

These hedgehog pumpkins are are perfect non-scary halloween decorations for little children. What’s more, even tiny tots can get involved in making them.

Want to see how? Read on to find out!

Non-scary hedgehog pumpkins

Now, let’s get something you probably noticed out of the way first… these hedgehog pumpkins aren’t actually pumpkins. Yes, that’s right, they are butternut squash.

We used squash instead of pumpkins so that our hedgehogs would have that characteristic long snout. But this method will work just as well if you want to make them with actual pumpkins instead.

How to make Hedgehog Pumpkins

Materials needed

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• A butternut squash or pumpkin
• lots of sticks
• Hand drill (this one is child-sized) or children’s palm drill (or any old sharp pointy thing that can make holes in your hedgehog)
• children’s protective work gloves (if the kids are helping make the holes!)

Instructions

Making these hedgehog pumpkins (yes, I am going to keep calling them that) is so simple, I’m embarrassed to even call this a tutorial. There are really only two steps, and the kids can help with both of them.

Make a face

First things first, carve out some eyes and ears at the stalk end of your squash. I made these in a ‘C’ shape, but in retrospect slightly more ‘V’ shaped would have been more accurate.

I did this bit for my kids, then called them over to help me with the next bit. Drilling holes!

Drilling holes with kids

We used our kid-sized hand drill to do this, because it’s fun and the kids love using it. However a palm drill or even a sharp screwdriver would have worked just as well.

For this stage, you might want to get the kids to wear a protective gloves, especially if you are using a sharp pointy thing to make the holes. We use these ones, which come in small and large sizes

Make it spiky…

Once you’ve covered your hedgehog pumpkin with holes, it’s time to give the poor thing some spikes.

This stage is one even very small children can help with. Just get some twigs and poke ’em in those holes! We use wire clippers to cut them to size, but obviously supervise little ones with this.

And that’s it! Perfectly charming and completely non-scary hedgehog pumpkins, all ready for Halloween.

A menagerie of Animal Pumpkins

We made a whole woodland of animal friends for our spiky hedgehogs, for a small child-friendly pumpkin trail (you can see them here). We also made bird feeders out of mini pumpkins for our trail, and you can see how we did those here)

Many of our animal pumpkins were made the same way, with just simple faces and twigs for ornaments. Once you’ve made one this way, the only limit is your imagination!

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