Research reveals that two thirds of parents are spooked by the fear of pumpkin carving – with 60% saying they are put under pressure from their children to deliver a perfect pumpkin.

To help parents, the staff at Morrisons in Ross-on-Wye ran a pumpkin carving class on Friday, October 28th.

The live ‘How To’ tutorial saw the staff create masterpieces, share prepping and carving tips, answer questions, and provide insider ‘tricks of the trade’ for carving all sizes of pumpkins.

In the research, almost half of parents (43%) said they were not at all confident when it comes to pumpkin carving, with the average parent due to spend two hours and 21 minutes on Halloween preparation this year. The research also revealed that one in five of parents admitted to buying two pumpkins in case they needed to start again – with one in 20 being reduced to tears by the process.

45% of parents attributed the increased pressure for the perfect pumpkin to the explosion of carving masterpieces shared on social media by friends and neighbours.

Andrew Mears, Store Manager at Morrisons Ross on Wye, commented: “Halloween is a big occasion for our customers with the perfect pumpkin taking centre stage in most UK households. We know that some of our customers dread the annual carving, so it we thought it useful to roll out our greengrocers - who helped turn their pumpkins into the perfect ghouls, ghosts, witches and Jack-o’-Lantern. We hope our classes, stencils and online tutorials made carving easier.”

Morrisons has also created an online ‘how to’ video and a series stencils for 30-minute monster masterpieces and last minute miracles – all available at www.morrisons.com/pumpkins .

This year Morrisons stock a range of new varieties, including Ghost (a white pumpkin at £3) and Giant pumpkins also at £3, alongside the more traditionally sized standard varieties (costing as little as 75p or 2 for £1).