Grandma's ingenious pumpkin carving hack for Halloween is Jennifer Garner-approved: 'It's a win'

Distinctive and fashionable pumpkin carving ideas circulate online every year ahead of Halloween. But getting your pumpkin ready for a design might be a difficult procedure. A video by Babs Costello, also known as @brunchwithbabs on TikTok, showcases some brilliant advice for simple pumpkin carving. Costello is famous for offering excellent guidance on a variety of subjects, from coping with stress to cleaning. Her video on how to carve a pumpkin is no exception. Her video has blown up across the internet, with even actress Jennifer Garner trying the viral pumpkin hack.

While some skilled pumpkin carvers are adept at using kits, most of us may benefit from a few tricks. "🎃The Do’s and Don’ts of Pumpkin Carving 🎃 It is a treasured tradition in our family to carve jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. But with all the yuck and mess, sometimes my kids would quit the project before we even started. Babs’ Do’s and Don’ts for Pumpkin Carving saves the mess and speeds up carving with no mess and no fuss. Happy Halloween 🎃 XO Babs," she writes in the caption. To begin with, Costello advises carving from the bottom rather than the top to be practical and maintain the spooky look. She also asks viewers to try to sit and hold the pumpkin you'll be carving in their lap rather than performing the task at a table. "You will have a much steadier pumpkin to cut," she writes. 

The best bit of advice from Costello involves a common kitchen appliance, which no one has ever thought of using in this fashion. She uses a hand mixer to break up the seeds and that certainly saves up a lot of time. Actress Jennifer Garner even put this concept to the test and declared it to be a success, writing, "It's a win!" 

To develop a design more effectively, Costello advises avoiding the commonplace black marker in favor of a red dry-erase one. However, she suggests the use of cookie cutters and a soft rubber mallet for easy carving if you're not comfortable with a knife or you want the kids to participate in this holiday tradition. You also don't need to hunt up any specific shapes.

Costello suggests rubbing Vaseline all over the pumpkin's cut surfaces, including the eyes, nose, mouth, and any other locations you've carved out, to provide the finishing touches. By doing so, the moisture will be trapped within and the pumpkin won't dry out before Halloween. Finally, the wise grandmother advises her audience to stuff the pumpkin with cinnamon or other fall-themed spices, for some beautiful fragrance to go along with your jack-o-lanterns! When you light it with a candle, it will smell beautiful and festive this way.

TikTok users were shocked at the revelations, commending Babs for the insightful advice ahead of Halloween. User Dukaroo commented, saying, "My God, Babs, you NEVER fail to impress and teach me something new, and inspiring." User Kerri Navarro commented, "God, I love you! I have been doing everything wrong the last 40-plus years of my life!!!" Another user Mr.Preston expressed that their fingers used to always hurt after carving, "Babs, you’re a genius! My fingernails always hurt after carving pumpkins!"

Instagram users went gaga over the trick too. User @thehappilyeva was amazed at the bottom carving hack, and commented, "Oh hello I was today years old when I realized I’ve been making the jack-o-lanterns upside down my entire life 😮😭" Another user, @maryorton, was so amazed she suggested a Nobel prize for Babs, commenting, "SOMEONE GIVE THIS WOMAN A NOBEL PRIZE. This is all groundbreaking information to me. I’ve been doing Halloween wrong my entire life."