While carving pumpkins is spooktacularly fun, it’s not incredibly kid-friendly. To be honest, cutting up pumpkin for dinner is a tough ask sometimes, so ditch the knives and whip out the paintbrush instead.

Painting pumpkins for Halloween is a freakishly fun way to get into the spirit of the day, without having to dial up the creepy factor. The shape of pumpkins means they’re easily transformed into fun, rather than frightening creations. For these pumpkin decorations, you can either use a real pumpkin, or if you want to keep them use craft pumpkins.

9 Halloween Painted Pumpkin Ideas For Kids

From fingerprint freehand to elaborate, detailed designs, it’s time to raid the craft cupboard, and get cracking on these Halloween painted pumpkin ideas.

Cookie Monster Painted Pumpkin

This gorgeous cookie-loving creation is super quick work for maximum impact. Blue spray paint, styrofoam balls and a bit of hot glue gun action and this guy could be greeting trick or treaters on your front porch. Full tutorial over at hello, Wonderful.

Painted Fingerprint Pumpkins

No need to even dig out the paintbrushes for this one. Just use thumbprints and dots to create ghostly shapes, eerie eyeballs and spooky skulls just like Handmade Charlotte.

Harry Potter Painted Pumpkin

Halloween is all about magic so this adorable painted pumpkin from Heart Song Press is just the ticket for a bit of hocus pocus and a whole lot of fun.

Minions Painted Pumpkins

Another impressive no-carve pumpkin option is a gaggle of minions. The very clever Crafty Morning made the goggles from coke cans – genius!

Unicorn Painted Pumpkin

This gorgeous creature is a showstopper, but it’s deceptively simple. Better Homes & Gardens used a faux pumpkin, spray paint, fake flowers, air dry clay and decals to craft this beautiful unicorn pumpkin.

Pikachu and Pokeball Painted Pumpkins

The Pokemon craze isn’t taking a hike anytime soon so Happiness Is Homemade found a way to combine it with Halloween. These have been crafted using faux pumpkins, so they can be used year after year.

Toy Story Painted Pumpkins

You’ve got a friend in Halloween with this impressive Woody and Buzz painted pumpkins by As The Bunny Hops. A base coat of white gives the perfect canvas for these adorable decorations.

Shiba Painted Pumpkins

Give your doorstep a super cute Halloween makeover, by including your pooch in the pumpkin fun. Hello Hoku based her designs on shibas, but you can use your family pet as inspo.

Bunny Painted Pumpkins

Bring in a whole new pumpkin flavour by using butternut pumpkins. They lend themselves to being painted to looking like bunnies – how adorable! Full tutorial at Handmade Charlotte.

Looking for more fun Halloween ideas?

• 6 Spooktacular Halloween Snacks For Little Monsters
• Make Your Own Squid Game Dolls
• 5 Steps To Haunting Your House This Halloween