This year we have strayed away from the traditional pumpkin carving and got out the hand drill instead. I know not everyone will have one of these but this one was very cheap (from eBay) and we have got so much use out of it! Well worth getting one and even very young children can have a go.

We wanted to make a constellation pumpkin based on the beautiful book ‘Star Climbing’. We also used the ‘Night Sky’ book to see which constellations we would be able to see at this time of year (we can’t actually see them at the moment due to a lot of cloud but hopefully we will one night before Halloween/Samhain). We chose Draco the dragon as he fits well with this time of year.

My son scooped out the seeds and drew a rough design onto the pumpkin (with a little help) and then I made a little hole at each point as this helps with stopping the drill from slipping.

Then away he went! He used the bigger drill bit for the constellation holes and a smaller one to create lots of other ‘stars’ all over the pumpkin. He found it a lot easier to drill through the pumpkin than wood and thought the little ‘wiggly worms’ that came out of the holes were brilliant!

We think its rather effective, especially when the constellation is projected onto the wall. The glow is warm and comforting, perfect on these dark evenings. And now we have our very own constellation in our living room!