Pumpkin Carving Contest
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (127503)
Gainesville, Florida
October 31, 2025 3:42pm CST
One of the things I love about where I work is that we are always celebrating holidays and other milestones throughout the year (birthdays, anniversaries, national days, etc). So, of course, with today being Halloween, we couldn't resist joining in on the fun usually reserved for the little ones, which included dressing up in costumes, trick-or-treating throughout the store, small carnival games, and a pumpkin carving contest.
Each department got to enter a pumpkin in the contest, with the top three winners receiving a prize. In the photo you can see my department's entry. It's supposed to be a blowfish, made out of candy corn and googly-eyes. And guess what? We won first place! Yet, sadly, we were disqualified. Can you guess why?
Even though we were disqualified, our store manager loved our pumpkin and bought each of us a big bag of Halloween candy. So even though my department didn't take home the first place trophy, we still came out winners.
Take a good guess as to why we were disqualified. It pays to read the fine print I guess.
21 people like this
18 responses
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
31 Oct
Oh neat! Did. you get any pictures of the entries?
2 people like this
@NJChicaa (126409)
• United States
31 Oct
@moffittjc 2 of the women did this and covered all of the lockers with 67 pictures their students colored
3 people like this
@RasmaSandra (94477)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
31 Oct
I guess you were disqualified because you decorated but did not carve a pumpkin.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
31 Oct
Bingo! We have a winner! Yes, we were disqualified because we decorated a pumpkin, not carved a pumpkin. So next year, we decided we will have two contests, a pumpkin carving contest and a pumpkin decorating contest.
And, in hindsight, had we carved two holes where the eyes were and stuck the googly-eyes inside the holes, we would have qualified our pumpkin as a "carved" pumpkin. Live and learn I guess.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
31 Oct
@RasmaSandra Are you a fan of candy corn? It's not my favorite candy, but I'll eat it. So many people dislike candy corn for some reason. But it sure does make a great decorating candy if nothing else!
3 people like this
@snowy22315 (203241)
• United States
31 Oct
Wow, how creative! Who's idea was it to do that?
2 people like this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
31 Oct
I wish I could say it was my idea, but it wasn't. One of the ladies on my team came up with the idea. She is so creative, and is always coming up with neat ideas like that.
3 people like this
@LadyDuck (493730)
• Italy
1 Nov
@moffittjc - What a shame you were disqualified, because in my opinion this covered pumpkin is beautiful.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
@LadyDuck Thank you! One of the ladies on our team came up with the idea. I didn't think it would work at first, but as we continued to make progress on it, I became inspired and started to really like the idea.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
Only the front half of the pumpkin was covered in candy corn. The back half (which you can't see in the photo), was bare pumpkin. It took us hours to stick all the candy corn on the front half, it would have taken us way too long to try and cover the entire pumpkin!
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (214416)
• United States
1 Nov
You didn't carve a pumpkin...but it was still cute.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
Bingo! Our pumpkin was not carved at all, it was just decorated. But we still walked away as winners, just not in the pumpkin carving contest. lol
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Nov
@LindaOHio I injured my knee at our Texas tournament three weeks ago, and now I have fluid on the knee on my left knee. I have arthritis in both knees, and I basically am grinding bone-on-bone now in my knees because most of the cartilage is gone. There is nothing I can do about it other than getting knee replacement surgery, which I am going to try to hold off on as long as possible. We have World Cup coming up in two weeks, so hopefully my knee will feel good enough to allow me to play.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (214416)
• United States
2 Nov
@moffittjc How are your paintball competitions coming along?
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
31 Oct
@Nevena83 Yes, candy is always a good reward!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
31 Oct
Underneath all that candy, there was a real pumpkin! But we got disqualified because we did not carve the pumpkin, we just decorated it.
2 people like this
@Nevena83 (66064)
• Serbia
31 Oct
@moffittjc Oh, I understand now. But the important thing is that you still got the candy.
2 people like this
@FourWalls (83158)
• United States
1 Nov
But you didn’t carve a pumpkin! That’s adorable, though.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83158)
• United States
1 Nov
@moffittjc — see, what you do NEXT year is actually CARVE a pumpkin and set this pretty one inside of it! 
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Nov
@FourWalls Now that would be fun trying to accomplish! Then we could enter that pumpkin into two categories...carved AND decorated!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
Shame on us for not following directions! And we probably put in the most time on our pumpkin, just to see us disqualified in the end! But it was all fun, and we had a great time doing it.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
I thought so too. Even though it wasn't a carved pumpkin, it still was amazingly creative.
@DaddyEvil (168425)
• United States
1 Nov
It was disqualified because it wasn't made with any pumpkin parts? It IS cute, though!
I hated Walmart for decorating for holidays way too early. I was burned out way before the actual holiday arrived.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (168425)
• United States
1 Nov
@moffittjc Walmart always had one small section for Halloween decorations and the Lawn and Garden section given over to Christmas by the 1st of October. The little section for Halloween decorations was removed on November 1st and it was given over to Thanksgiving then.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
@DaddyEvil At least Walmart has a Thanksgiving section. Most stores go straight from Halloween to Christmas. Lowe's had a pretty good selection of Thanksgiving decor this year, but it was all mixed in with the Halloween stuff. I think they should separate it out to give distinct holiday seasons and natural progression through each holiday sales periods.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
In hindsight, if we would have carved the pumpkin's eyes and then stuck the googly-eyes in the hollowed out holes, we probably wouldn't have been disqualified. Oh well, maybe next year!
By the time Halloween day arrived at Lowe's yesterday, we had already sold out of all of our Halloween decorations and have had our Christmas decorations up for a month! In fact, I think we've already sold out of about half of our Christmas stock.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Nov
I really liked how it turned out.
1 person likes this
@aninditasen (18039)
• Raurkela, India
1 Nov
That looks beautiful. Hope you enjoyed the celebration.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
Thank you. I don't really do much in celebration of the holiday (it is more for children anyway), but I do like to eat candy!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
3 Nov
@aninditasen Yes. Yes I do. It’s my weakness in life.
1 person likes this
@aninditasen (18039)
• Raurkela, India
3 Nov
@moffittjc So you have a sweet tooth.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
It is a real pumpkin, but we were disqualified because we did not carve our pumpkin. We just decorated it.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Nov
@nela13 They already decided that next year there will be two different competitions, once for best carved pumpkin, and one for best decorated pumpkin.
1 person likes this
@nela13 (59178)
• Portugal
1 Nov
@moffittjc ohhh, it makes sense. Next year you already know.
1 person likes this
@porwest (111865)
• United States
1 Nov
Ah. Finally, a good use of candy corn. The stuff is, of course, inedible. lol I'd have disqualified you too. Come on. They literally said CARVED PUMPKIN. it was not carved but BUILT.
Anyway, it's cute and creative, if a guy can get away with saying the word cute and keep his balls about him.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
Five of the 10 people on my team are women, and it was they who came up with the inspiration for the pumpkin. So kudos to them for the great idea, and shame on us men for not speaking up that our pumpkin should have been carved, not decorated!
But to keep the women happy, it is okay and acceptable to say that the pumpkin is cute. This ensures that you will keep your balls about you for the time being.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Nov
@porwest Men don't stand a chance going up against women.
1 person likes this
@porwest (111865)
• United States
2 Nov
@moffittjc Perhaps it wasn't a shame on you moment, but rather a precautionary one. Do men really stand a chance going against women?
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
4 Nov
Thanks. One of the ladies on my team came up with the idea. I’m not as creative as she is.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
5 Nov
@MarieCoyle I might have to think of a Disney-themed pumpkin for next year!
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (55004)
•
4 Nov
@moffittjc
I am rather surprised you didn't think up a Disney-themed one, or even one with a paintball player! 
@GardenGerty (167805)
• United States
1 Nov
I love it, and admire the patience to accomplish it, but I am going to guess you were disqualified because it was not carved.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
You are correct, we were disqualified because we did not carve the pumpkin. But we had lots of fun creating it, and everybody loved it, so in the end it was worth it, even though we technically did not win the first place trophy.
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
Thanks! It took forever to glue all those pieces of candy corn to the pumpkin. There are 10 of us in my department, we rotated throughout the day taking turns working on the pumpkin.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (129954)
• Marion, Ohio
1 Nov
That is a great one. But it's not a pumpkin
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
It's a blowfish! LOL.
We were disqualified because our pumpkin was decorated, not carved. It was a pumpkin carving contest, not a pumpkin decorating contest.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (127503)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Nov
Your guess was both correct and incorrect. It actually is a pumpkin (although you can't see it because of all the candy corn stuck to it), but you were correct in stating that it wasn't carved. That's what got us disqualified, because it was a pumpkin carving contest and not a pumpkin decorating contest.
1 person likes this
