Painting pumpkins for Halloween is a great no carve option for kids. Also an easy Halloween art activity for toddlers.
Updated September 2021
Painting pumpkins is an easy way for kids of all ages to participate in decorating for Halloween. It’s also a super fun sensory activity.
It’s something little kids can totally get into – using paint and brushes (or hands) on 3-dimensional orange objects with ridges and stems. How fun!
And older kids enjoy it as well.
Plus the painted pumpkins don’t decay the way carved pumpkins do, so you can decorate your pumpkins earlier for Halloween decorations.
Painting Pumpkins With Kids
Painting with pumpkins is easy: give each child a pumpkin, some paints, paintbrushes (or just let them finger paint!) and if you’re brave, glitter!
You can use Halloween colors, or any colors you’d like. We think these pastel colors really pop on the orange pumpkin!
The Best Paints for Pumpkin Painting with Kids
The paint we used is activity paint
from Discount School Supply. We’ve used tempera paint for painting pumpkins in the past and it works fine, but does tend to crack and peel a bit after it dries. The activity paint adheres to most surfaces without any cracking. BioColor paint would work great, too.
If you have tempera paint though, go ahead and use it! Try mixing in a few drops of liquid dish soap to the tempera paint first to help it stick to the smooth surface.
Have you tried painting pumpkins with kids yet?
More Halloween Art Ideas for Kids
- Marble Rolling Spiderwebs
- Tape Resist Skeleton
- Pumpkin Decorating Ideas for Kids
- A DIY Lite Bright Jack-O’-Lantern
Autumn Arts & Crafts Ideas & Supplies
Download our FREE printable idea list of 31 Halloween activities for kids & families! Or just check out the blog post with the links. So many fun ideas for Halloween!
And be sure to check out our FALL family fun list in our Amazon store! It includes supplies for fall arts & crafts, autumn toys, Halloween ideas, and picture books about autumn.
PLUS: Get our Halloween Arts & Crafts for Kids workshop! This is an online workshop with 10 fun Halloween arts and crafts activities, (plus a bonus of 10 Halloween-themed drawing prompts!) that your family can enjoy all October long. Use coupon code KASHALFOFF for $9.99!
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