10 Things to do with your Leftover Pumpkins

Pumpkins make beautiful decor during the fall season, but what do you do with all those leftover pumpkins after the autumn season has come and gone? Don’t throw them out – you may be surprised to learn that there are multiple uses for them.

I absolutely love to decorate my porch with pumpkins in September and October. But come November, I’m ready to switch over to Christmas decor. The pumpkins need to go.

Now, if you live in the US I know this may be a little different for you as you don’t start celebrating Christmas as early as we do here in Canada.

You have Thanksgiving in November, as opposed to us celebrating it in October. That means you might be hanging on to that pumpkin decor a little longer than me.

Be that as it may, there will still come a time where you may have a bunch of pumpkins you are done with, even if it isn’t until December. They did their job by giving you and all your neighbors the fall vibes that you wanted, but now it’s time to let that autumn style go until next year.

So what can you do with all those leftover pumpkins? Turns out, plenty. Read on to find out.

WHAT TO DO WITH LEFTOVER PUMPKINS

Roast them to use for cooking

The other day I ran to the store to grab some pumpkin puree for these pumpkin pie squares I was going to bring to our Thanksgiving celebration. All the stores were sold out.

As I was staring out the window of my front door trying to decide what to do, I couldn’t believe that I completely overlooked using the pumpkins sitting on my porch.

This is better suited for pie pumpkins, and obviously pumpkins you haven’t carved.

You can roast the pumpkin and freeze the puree, or use it right away for baking things like pumpkin cinnamon rolls, muffins, or pie.

Feed them to your chickens

Chickens will eat pumpkins, so if you have some laying hens, why not toss your old pumpkins in their coop? If you don’t have chickens I’m sure someone you know with chickens would love to take those pumpkins off your hands for their birds.

Make a bird feeder

You just need to cut a big hole in the front of your pumpkin, fill it with a bunch of bird seed, and use some twine to tie it to a tree so it can hang. For more detailed instructions check out this tutorial.

This is just a really fun project to do that gives you something to do with your pumpkins while allowing you to admire the birds that will eat from it! And the good news, it’ll only take you 5-10 minutes to complete.

Roast the Pumpkin Seeds

Make a snack by scooping out all the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin and roasting them in your oven with some seasonings.

Make a snowman out of them

Just because Halloween is over doesn’t mean you have to put away the pumpkins. This cute craft takes pumpkins and some white spray paint and a few other things to make a snowman to decorate your porch with.

You can find all the instructions on how to do this here. This might just be my favorite leftover pumpkin upcycling yet!

Compost the pumpkins

Making your own compost for your garden is sure to help it grow! Adding your pumpkins to the compost mix will add much needed nutrients that you can put back into the ground eventually.

Healthy soil means you will be able to grow even more pumpkins next year!

Donate your pumpkin

There are farms, zoos, and animal sanctuaries that will take your old pumpkins and feed it to the animals in their care. Do a search in your area to find out if any of those places will allow you to donate your pumpkins for a good cause.

Use them for Crafts for your Kids

I’m always looking for fun ways to entertain my kids, and I know when they were younger they would have loved if I had put a pumpkin in front of them, and a paintbrush or stickers they would have had a ball!

Make it an afternoon of artistic fun by using your old pumpkins for some art projects.

Have a pumpkin smash party

Invite your friends over and take turns smashing pumpkins by throwing them across your yard, or dropping them from somewhere high.

When you are done with the smashing part you can gather up the pumpkins (or what’s left of them) and toss them in your compost pile. It’s a win-win!

Save them for Thanksgiving

Okay, here in Canada Thanksgiving is before Halloween so this doesn’t really work, but if you are in the US and Halloween has passed you don’t need to get rid of your pumpkins quite yet.

Uncarved pumpkins last a super long time and you can use the ones you didn’t cut into for your thanksgiving decor.

What to do with unwanted pumpkins

So there you have it – 10 ways to use those unwanted pumpkins that you thought you were done with! Turns out there’s still life in them and you can use them for many other things than just Halloween decorations.

When the kids were young I would always carve our pumpkin but as they’ve gotten older I like to leave them uncarved and decorate with them as whole pumpkins. This means I can get a lot more use out of them when we are done decorating with the pumpkins.

I also try to buy or grow pie pumpkins as opposed to the bigger ones because I find them more versatile for using after the fact as well. That being said, you can still use those bigger pumpkins for cooking and other things.

What about you? Do you use your pumpkins in multiple ways? Is there something not on the list that you do every year with your leftover pumpkins? I’d love to hear about it below in the comments.

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