The pumpkin prayer is a classic activity for Christian families and Sunday School classes leading up to the Halloween season. Use our printable template and directions to share this object lesson with your kids this October.
Prayer Pumpkins Activity Idea
Materials needed: pumpkin for carving, carving tools, trash bags, a copy of pumpkin prayer, candle for pumpkin, Bible.
Some of you may have heard of or even read the pumpkin prayer before. It is a fun way to carve a pumpkin with your family or even in your children’s church time. As you begin to carve your pumpkin, read the poem below. You can look up corresponding scripture ahead of time to read as you carve your pumpkin. (If you want to leave in a classroom for an extended period of time, you can use a sharpie marker to draw the features on the pumpkin, just remember to explain that normally we would clean out a pumpkin when carving it and how that correlates to God cleaning out the sin from our lives).
This time of year brings about a holiday that is often met with controversy within the church. Some people choose to embrace Halloween and some people choose to oppose it. Some churches host fall festivals, some hold trunk-or-treats, and some don’t acknowledge the holiday at all. Whether you choose to celebrate or not is up to your family and church. However, if you do choose to participate in the Halloween holiday, here’s a way to celebrate from a Christian perspective.
The Pumpkin Prayer (Poem)
Dear Jesus,
As I carve my pumpkin, help me pray this prayer:
Open my mind so that I can learn about You;
(cut the top off the pumpkin)
Take all my sin and forgive the wrong that I do.
(clean out the inside)
Open my eyes so Your love I will see;
(cut eyes shaped like hearts)
I’m sorry for times I’ve turned up my nose at what You’ve given to me.
(cut a nose in the shape of a cross)
Open my ears so Your word I will hear;
(cut ears shaped like a Bible)
Open my mouth to tell others You’re near.
(cut the mouth in the shape of a fish)
Let Your light shine in all I say and do!
(place candle inside and light it)
Type or write out Matthew 5:16 and attach it to the stem of the pumpkin as a reminder to live our lives for God and his glory.
Bonus Ideas for Combining Prayer and Pumpkins
Jessica wrote an excellent blog post about the pumpkin prayer and what would Jesus carve? She included some easy print bookmarks of the prayer too.
We enjoyed the photo examples of carving along with the pumpkin prayer from the half a hundred-acre wood blog. You can download their free pumpkin prayer bookmarks to go along with this activity.
Don’t miss our free printable “Do Not Fear” coloring pages for Halloween. We also have Halloween Sunday School lessons to help children put their faith in God when the world gets scary.