Pumpkin carving at Hughenden Manor

I’m so pleased we were able to squeeze in a trip to do some pumpkin carving at Hughenden Manor today. It was a great way to round off a very exciting half term. It’s also one of my favourite National Trust properties.

Hughenden Manor was the home of Benjamin Disraeli, once Prime Minister, but also had an important role during the Second World War. Today you can visit part of the house, gardens, and extensive grounds. They also run some really fun events for families. Last year we went along to one of their Apple Days, this time we wanted to go pumpkin carving!

As soon as the children saw the sign they wanted to go straight away and carve pumpkins. I think this may be their favourite thing about Halloween! I’ve never seen so many pumpkins in one place and there were some wonderful volunteers who made the event really special.

Some volunteers were outside carving the most amazing pumpkins. Us adults wanted to find out more but the kids just wanted to get their hands on a pumpkin so in we went to the old kitchen. Everything was laid out so the kids both had their own pumpkins and were soon scooping out the insides and carving their designs. My 6 year old opted for two lightsabers crossing each other (yep, he’s Star Wars mad!). My 4 year old just wanted a scary face.

They both thoroughly enjoyed themselves. After they had cleaned themselves up, we labelled their pumpkins and left them to one side to collect later. Then we were able to relax a little! We explored the house, had a cup of tea and let the children run around in the woods to burn off some of their energy.

We had a lovely time and judging by the amount of people there, we weren’t the only ones. One of the volunteers mentioned Father Christmas may be visiting in December – fingers crossed we can go back soon [edited – booked to see Father Christmas!].

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