Every year the kids and I go round and round about when we should put out our Jack O lanterns. We usually don't carve them till a few days before Halloween because we are still having warm weather and they tend to rot otherwise....

When do you put yours out? How long do they last? Any tips on making them last longer?

We do have some out that are painted and stenciled.......but since they don't glow the kids don't like them as much

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

We will put ours out this weekend but it is chilly here so they stay good for awhile.

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"Never loan your car to someone you have given birth too"

Don't carve too early----pumpkin will rot and shrivel up. I usually carve two days before halloween.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

I usually carve mine 1-2 days before Halloween. If you desire some decoration now, maybe a plastic or resin piece could suffice.

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We're off to never never land

We have our pumpkins on the front porch now, but won't carve them until the day before Halloween. It's still in the 80's here, so they won't last long after we carve them, maybe a couple of days.

Can you carve one now??? And save the rest for later. Then only put that one out at night with a candle or battery operated light, for the kids to enjoy. Before turning in for the night, bring the pumpkin in and put in the refrigerator until the next night. I have never tried this, so if YOU do, please let us know if it works. I'm in the same boat. I hate the bugs the carved pumpkins draw.......YUK..

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

For those that put your pumpkins outside, do you have problems with neighborhood kids stealing them and smashing them? Depending on whether or not the neighborhood-hoodlums are out and about, sometimes out pumpkins are left alone and sometimes they find every pumpkin they can and smash them all. Even when I lived at home with parents, every night I would go out and bring pumpkin inside to keep it from being stolen and the one night I forget somebody stole it and up the road later it was smashed into bits and pieces.

We have 8 pumpkins sitting out as decorations on the porch right now. No, we don't have any problems with kids stealing them or smashing them. The neighbor across the street has about 20! We have 6 set aside for carving. We will carve about 2-3 days before Halloween because if they freeze (which it's that time of year here...), they will get all mushy and that's no fun

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003