SAFETY GUIDE

Candle or LED? Lighting a carved pumpkin safely

Use a battery-powered LED. The National Fire Protection Association, the U.S. Fire Administration, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission all recommend battery lights or glow sticks over open flames in jack-o'-lanterns, and an LED won't cook your pumpkin from the inside. If you do use a real candle, it needs a vent, a clear 12-inch zone, and an adult watching it.

The numbers

Decorations: from 2020 to 2024, U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 835 home fires a year that began with decorations, causing an average of 3 deaths, 29 injuries, and $18 million in direct property damage each year (NFPA).
Why they start: in nearly half (47%) of those fires, the decorations were too close to a heat source such as a candle or hot equipment. About one-third (33%) were started by candles (NFPA).
Candles overall: from 2020 to 2024, candles started an average of 5,894 home fires a year, with 63 deaths, 532 injuries, and $286 million in damage. In over half, something that could burn was too close to the candle (NFPA).
Carving itself: CPSC estimated an annual average of 3,200 Halloween-related injuries treated in U.S. emergency rooms over the three years before its October 2022 release, and 55% of them were related to pumpkin carving.

The pattern is consistent: most of the risk comes from a flame near something flammable. Taking the flame out of the pumpkin removes most of it.

Light options compared

Light	Brightness for detail	Heat and fire risk	Notes
Wax candle	Low to medium, flickering	Open flame. Heats and partly cooks the pumpkin.	Needs a vent, a stable holder, and constant supervision.
Battery tea light	Low. Fine for bold, simple faces.	Very low heat	Cheap and easy. Often too dim for a detailed pattern. Check the battery door.
LED puck or small lantern	Medium to high, steady	Very low heat	The best all-round choice for photo patterns.
String lights (plug-in or battery)	Medium, spread out	Low. Plug-in sets bring cords and outlets into play.	Bunch them in the middle for even light. Use sets tested by a recognized lab.
Glow stick	Very low	None	Recommended by NFPA and CPSC. Good for small kids' pumpkins, too dim for detail.
Flashlight or phone light	High, but a narrow beam	Very low heat	Point it up at the inside of the top, not at the face, so the light spreads.

Pick lights marked for outdoor use if the pumpkin sits outside, and keep plug-in cords off paths where trick-or-treaters walk.

Choosing a light that shows fine detail

A classic jack-o'-lantern has a few big openings, so one tea light is enough. A photo pattern is different: it has small shapes, thin lines, and pieces of kept pumpkin between them, and a dim light makes those details disappear. A brighter light shows more detail, especially for Challenging patterns.

Go brighter, and steady. A steady LED puck or lantern shows a face more clearly than a flickering tea light. Save flicker for simple faces.
Center the light behind the face. If you opened the pumpkin from the bottom, set the light on an upturned cup so it sits level with the middle of the design, not down on the ground.
Spread it out. Two or three smaller lights, or a light aimed at the back wall, give more even glow than one bright point. A hot spot behind one eye can wash out the rest.
Choose warm white. It looks like candlelight and suits orange flesh. Cool white looks bluer and colder.
Test in the dark. Turn off the room lights before you place the pumpkin, and adjust the light while you look at the face from where visitors will see it.

Thin walls glow more. Scraping the carving side to about 2 to 3 cm (roughly an inch) helps as much as a brighter bulb. The carving guide shows how.

Watch the button batteries

Many LED tea lights run on coin-sized button batteries. In April 2026, CPSC announced a recall of a pumpkin carving kit sold online because the button batteries in its tea lights could be accessed easily by children. Swallowed button batteries can cause serious internal burns and death. The kit also lacked the warnings required under Reese's Law, the U.S. safety standard for products that contain button batteries.

Choose lights whose battery door closes with a screw, and check that it's shut.
Keep spare and used batteries out of reach, and store lights away from small children.
If you think a child swallowed a battery, don't wait for symptoms. Call the National Battery Ingestion Hotline at 1-800-498-8666 or Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, and go to an emergency room right away.

If you use a real candle

Use a short, wide candle in a sturdy holder that can't tip, set on a flat, nonflammable base inside the pumpkin.
Cut a vent. A candle under a closed lid scorches the top and smokes. Cut a small chimney hole in the lid above the flame, or leave the lid off or propped open.
Light it with a long match or a utility lighter, as NFPA advises, so your hand stays out of the pumpkin.
Keep 12 inches (30 cm) clear around it. NFPA and USFA both use this distance for anything that can burn.
Never leave it unattended. Blow it out when you go inside, leave the room, or go to bed.
Mind the grease. Petroleum jelly and cooking oil can burn. If you greased the cuts to make the pumpkin last, that's one more reason to switch to an LED.

Where to put it

Keep lit pumpkins well away from doorsteps, walkways, and yards where trick-or-treaters pass, and where costumes could brush against a flame (NFPA, CPSC).
Keep them away from dried cornstalks, hay, dried flowers, and crepe paper. NFPA notes these catch fire easily.
Indoors, keep them away from curtains and other decorations. A window sill with nothing hanging above works well.
Keep exits clear of decorations, and check that your smoke alarms work.
Set the pumpkin on a flat, stable surface where a dog's tail or a child's bag won't knock it over.

Costumes, kids, and pets

Costumes: avoid long, trailing fabric. Look for a label that reads "flame resistant" (USFA). CPSC explains that flame-resistant fabrics resist burning and put themselves out quickly. That lowers the risk; it doesn't make a costume fireproof.
Kids: give each child a flashlight or glow stick to carry, and teach them to stay away from open flames, including lit jack-o'-lanterns. Make sure they know how to stop, drop, and roll. USFA suggests checking porches for lit candles before letting children approach a door.
Carving: CPSC recommends leaving the knife work to adults. Children can scoop the inside or trace the design. See pumpkin carving with kids for more.
Pets: the ASPCA warns that pets can easily knock over a lit pumpkin and start a fire, and that curious kittens are at particular risk of being burned by a candle flame. Keep wires out of reach too.

Planning a bigger evening? See family pumpkin carving night, and when it's glowing, photograph it at night before it fades. The examples page shows how patterns at each difficulty compare.

Make a pattern from your photo

Sources

NFPA, Halloween fire safety tips (decoration fire data for 2020 to 2024).
NFPA, Halloween fire safety tips sheet (PDF, 2024).
NFPA, Safety with candles (candle fire data for 2020 to 2024).
U.S. Fire Administration, Candle fire safety.
U.S. Fire Administration, Sample fire prevention press releases (Halloween).
CPSC, CPSC offers safety tips to keep hazards from haunting your Halloween (October 18, 2022).
CPSC, Halloween safety: tips for selecting costumes and décor.
CPSC, On a day for goblins and tricks, make safety a treat.
CPSC, Halloween pumpkin carving kits recalled due to risk of battery ingestion (April 9, 2026).
National Capital Poison Center, Button battery ingestion.
ASPCA, Halloween safety tips.
South Dakota State University Extension, Pumpkin carving preservation (on candle heat).