Ideas for Games for a Fall Pumpkin Festival

Pumpkin-Rolling Contest

• Place a few pumpkins on the ground and mark a standing line. Have three or four players select a pumpkin and stand on the starting line beside one another (not too close together to avoid the pumpkins bumping into one another). When you say, "Roll," each player must roll the pumpkins as far as they can away from the line. The player who rolls the pumpkin the farthest wins a prize.

Pumpkin Seed Toss Game

• Place plastic orange buckets or pails on the ground for a toss game. Mark a starting line and place the buckets about 10 feet away from the line for adults and 6 feet away for children. Use a black marker to write point values on the buckets. Write lower value points on buckets closer to the starting line and higher point values on buckets farther away. Give each player 10 pumpkin seeds to try to toss into the buckets. Keep record of each player's score and award a prize to players who score a certain number of points. Another variation is to substitute the buckets for hollowed-out pumpkins. If you use pumpkins, be sure to remove all the pumpkin seeds from each pumpkin or paint the tossing seeds black or orange.

Fall Scents

• Hollow and clean out a few pumpkins. Place a ½ cup of spices, such as cloves, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg, in each pumpkin. Put the pumpkin lid back on the pumpkin to keep the scent inside. Have the players try to guess what scent is in each pumpkin. Award a small prize for each scent the player guesses correctly.

Pumpkin Pass

• Have about 15 to 20 players stand in a circle and hand two small pumpkins to two players. Play music and have the players pass the pumpkins around the circle. When the music stops playing, the two players holding the pumpkins receive a prize. Award prizes, such as pumpkins, pumpkin-carving kits and accessories for decorating a pumpkin. Tell the players anyone caught holding on to the pumpkin in an attempt to keep it before the music stops is automatically out of the game.

Pumpkin Hay Hunt

• Unravel a bale of hay and hide a miniature pumpkin in the hay. Have two players at a time race to the pile of hay to try to find the pumpkin. The first player to find the miniature pumpkin in the hay wins a prize.