Step Aside, Pumpkins: There's Another Food You Should Be Carving

When summer is over and the pumpkin patch starts heating up for All Hallows Eve, everyone starts going gaga for the orange gourds. Pumpkins might be synonymous with harvest season and Halloween, but that doesn't mean that there aren't other perfectly carvable fruits and veggies out there to mix and match when you're party planning. Watermelon, for example, has an eminently carvable rind that's similar to pumpkins, and you can use all the same tools and templates. Also, unlike squash (which includes pumpkins), you can carve them up to display without wasting the best part — the flesh of the fruit.

Watermelons might seem like an unconventional carvable, especially because they're so popular in the summer. But their season stretches through September, which is long past beach weather in many parts of the country. You should have no problem sourcing a melon or two well into the spooky season. Kids love cut-up watermelon, as do many adults. And a carved watermelon at your next Halloween party is an excellent lower-sugar option to have around during the candy-heavy holiday.

If you've never tried carving a watermelon, there's no need to go down a YouTube rabbit hole; it's as easy as carving a pumpkin. In fact, watermelons don't have ridges, and are easier to slice through than pumpkins, so it might even be a little bit easier to handle them. They have dense, hard rinds with waxy exteriors. And once you've cut them into shape, they'll look great for up to a week, if you keep them refrigerated. The best part, really, is that you can eat all the watermelon inside, as opposed to all the stringy stuff you'll find inside a pumpkin.

If you're putting on a Monster Mash-style party for Halloween, a carved watermelon serves as more than just a decoration. This holiday can be almost entirely centered on candy, so having an alternative that's still a sweet treat is a nice plus for anyone trying to steer clear of added sugar. Watermelon contains 17 grams of sugar per serving, which is a substantial difference compared to 42 grams in a serving of milk chocolate. 

Watermelon is also universally beloved, so it's not like handing out boxes of raisins (seriously, don't do this).

Another bonus of carving watermelons is that they're green on the outside, red on the inside. Use these colors to your advantage and carve up a spooky Frankenstein monster, or an ogre (watermelon Shrek, anyone?). You could also carve your melon into a witch, Yoda, Mike Wazowski (the one-eyed monster in "Monsters, Inc."), Sheldon J. Plankton from "SpongeBob SquarePants" (another one-eyed wonder), or Piccolo from "Dragon Ball Z." Any green character is fair game. Plus, if you light them from the inside with a candle or flashlight, they give off a spooky reddish glow, which is a nice contrast to orange jack o'lanterns.

When you scoop out the melon, instead of serving regular square chunks, try using a melon baller to make a bowl of creepy edible eyeballs. (Anything you don't cut out for eating you can purée for the punch bowl.) Plus, when the party's over and you're done with your carved melon, you can achieve zero food waste by making spicy pickles with the rind. (Just try that with a pumpkin.)

Once you start adding carved watermelons to your scary-season tablescape, you'll wonder how you ever got by with only pumpkins all these years.