hello world!
Halloween, aka the Met Gala for people with Jack Skellington tattoos, is right around the corner. With the 31st fast approaching, we must prepare a few things. First, we single folks need to come up with the PERFECT costume. Personally, I believe in striking a balance between funny and attractive. If you lean too hard on either side, you look like you’re trying far too hard, and the opposite actually happens. That’s right, going as any character portrayed by Johnny Depp is uninspired, and we all know you did it just to be hot.
Second, you must get candy for the kids lest you suffer the wrath of an egging. I guess egging houses doesn’t really happen anymore. I blame TikTok for stealing the joy of ovum-based vigilante vandalism from our youth. Without egging, how will houses that hand out fruit learn to stop pushing their hippy ways? Finally, and most importantly, you have to decorate your house. Whether you like to go all out and create a full haunted house or prefer the minimalist approach, there is one decoration that will always appear: the jack-o-lantern.
Frank allows me the privilege of coming out of his basement on one condition. I carve the pumpkins. Naturally, since we are talking about our glorious leader, Frank wants his jack-o-lanterns to be Alice in Wonderland-themed. If the designs please Frank, he allows me the privilege of eating those fibrous sodium bombs known as pumpkin seeds that everyone shoves in their faces around this time. This year, I wanted to show you all my favorite Alice-themed jack-o-lanterns I found while researching designs for Frank. These designs may inspire your pumpkin carving as well.
Maybe you want to be subtle with your Alice in Wonderland jack-o-lanterns. You love Alice and want to show the world, but you only want people in the know to recognize your Alice-related easter eggs. Or maybe you don’t have the best pumpkin carving skills and want something easy. Either way, this first pumpkin is perfect for those who prefer subtly, and it’s easy enough for an Alice-obsessed kid to make. The card suits are a trope that has been in every Alice iteration from the very beginning. Why not give the card soldiers the love they deserve?
No, Card Suits Plus is not a streaming service for poker. Well, it actually might be. But as you can plainly see in the accompanying picture, this is the upgraded version of the card suit jack-o-lantern previously shown. This jack-o-lantern has the four card suits, but what’s so cool about it is that poking out of each suit is a giant Alice holding the “Drink Me” bottle. I love that the person who made this took a simple idea and elevated it.
Pspspspspspspspsps. Those who have owned cats know what this means. While researching Alice in Wonderland-inspired jack-o-lanterns, I was inundated with Cheshire Cat designs. This makes a lot of sense, as cats, specifically the black variety, are synonymous with Halloween. The design can be simple enough for most people to pull off, and the idea of the Cheshire Cat is actually a little spooky. Eyes and a mouth surrounded by darkness is a horror trope that has been used for as long as the genre has existed. I pulled some of my favorites I found online.
Of course, we have the Disney Cheshire Cat jack-o-lantern. Cartoons are naturally quite easy to execute in the art of pumpkin carving due to the necessity of the designs being simple enough to be hand drawn repeatedly.
Okay, now let’s make it scary; it’s Halloween, after all. Adding jagged teeth to the traditional Cheshire cat’s smile amps this pumpkin to a new level.
Now, this one is actually a twofer. We’ve got the March hare from the Alice in Wonderland Disney cartoon, which is incredibly detailed and executed perfectly, and we’ve got a more realistic-looking Cheshire cat’s smile. If you want to take a crack at a more complex design, this one seems like a fun project.
Of course, the Red Queen would make it onto a pumpkin. The decapitation-obsessed matriarch is perfect for Halloween. I wonder if she is friends with Ichabod Crane. Well, I guess they wouldn’t be friends since Ichabod was a recipient of the head removal that the Red Queen is so crazy about. But I digress.
Though this design is quite complex, the person who carved it gets an A+ from me. I didn’t know you could do shading on a pumpkin.
Since the previous design was complex, I wanted to add something that might be a bit easier, though it’s also not technically a jack-o-lantern.
This gourd sculpture of the Red Queen from the Disney movie is perfect for an Alice-themed Halloween decoration for two reasons. First, it’s obviously the Red Queen, so there is the Alice portion. Second, it kind of scares me, especially the weird gourd arms.
I’ve been struggling to come up with a fun title for these jack-o-lanterns, so if the title is not as inspired as the rest, it means I gave up, and the placeholder is now the title. But, just because my creative energy is lacking here does not mean these designs are.
I especially like the "Drink Me" pumpkin because there is something inherently spooky about a potion bottle with no description that reads “Drink me.”
This pumpkin is one of my favorites. It’s the perfect Alice in Wonderland jack-o-lantern. It’s straightforward and executed perfectly. Plus, it’s got the famous quote, “We’re all mad here,” carved into it.
If I did not include some jack-o-lantern designs inspired by Frank Beddor’s Looking Glass Wars novels, I would be forced to sit in the mistake box. So, here are two blueprints (Orangeprints?) inspired by The Looking Glass Wars and the Hatter M graphic novels.
We’ve got this simple yet elegant design of the Looking Glass Wars logo. It features the four card suits that, if done correctly, would look like a stained-glass window on a jack-o-lantern.
And now we’ve got a design that, at first, was a bit confusing to me because if you follow the directions as written, the part you cut out would also have the design on it, and that wouldn’t really work because you would just have a hat-shaped hole in your pumpkin.
BUT, I realized if you place the hat cut out back into the whole with the scraped rind, then you would have a really cool outline of Hatter Madigan’s top hat.
Do you fancy yourself a pumpkin artist? Do you walk around on Halloween scoffing at the amateur jack-o-lanterns these plebeians proudly display because they don’t know any better? Do you understand the “rule of thirds?” Well, then, do I have the Alice designs for you. This jack-o-lantern is carved in the original art style from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. So much detail is carved into it, including the blue, well in this case orange, caterpillar.
If the previous jack-o-lantern made you doubt your skills or made you want to give up because you’re carving your first pumpkin, worry not, for I have the simplest Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland jack-o-lantern that literally anyone can make.
Step One: Cut a circle into a pumpkin.
Step Two: It’s a rabbit hole.
I hope this collection of Alice in Wonderland jack-o-lanterns inspires some whimsical creativity at your next pumpkin carving party. Happy Halloween, everybody, and for those who were not born on October 31st, Happy Unbirthday!
Jared Hoffman graduated from the American Film Institute with a degree in screenwriting. A Los Angeles native, his brand of comedy is satire stemming from the many different personalities and egos he has encountered throughout his life. As a lover of all things comedy, Jared is always working out new material and trying to make those around him laugh. His therapist claims this is a coping mechanism, but what does she know?