How to Carve a Pumpkin in Minecraft

Up until Minecraft snapshot 17w47a, pumpkins would naturally spawn in the world with carved out faces. This is no longer the case, and natural pumpkins form more realistically and — faceless.

Of course, this means that natural pumpkins can no longer be used to make Snow Golems, Iron Golems, jack-o-lanterns, or be worn as a hat. So how do you carve a pumpkin in Minecraft? 

It’s actually pretty easy, and the guide below tells you everything you need to know about carving pumpkins in Minecraft.

How to Carve a Pumpkin in Minecraft

Equip a pair of shears, which can be crafted with two iron ingots, then interact with a placed pumpkin to carve it. Doing so will make the face appear, and you can then mine and collect the carved pumpkin as normal.

Carving it will also make it drop pumpkin seeds, which can be used to further farm pumpkins, or even to breed chickens.

How to Find Pumpkins in Minecraft

Before you can carve a pumpkin, you have to find one. Pumpkins naturally spawn in almost every Overworld biome, requiring only a grass block with an empty air space above it to appear.

This means that with the exception of deserts, beaches, and oceans, you can find pumpkins virtually anywhere. Look for grassy biomes with few visual obstructions, such as taiga or plains biomes, to find them.

You can also find pumpkins in Woodland Mansions, pillager outpost tents, taiga villages (they replace haybales). You can find pumpkin seeds as dungeon, mansion, village, or mineshaft loot, which you can then grow.

Carved pumpkins can be found naturally, too, appearing in rail rooms inside Woodland Mansions, as well as in pillager outposts, where they act as the heads of scarecrows.

What You Can Do With Carved Pumpkins

Carved pumpkins can be used to make jack-o-lanterns by placing them above a torch on a crafting table. They can also be worn on your head by placing them in the helmet slot of your inventory; this allows you to look Endermen in the face without upsetting them. This is great if you are going to the End to fight the dragon.

Finally, they can be used to spawn Snow Golems and Iron Golems. Place a carved pumpkin atop a two-high pillar of snow blocks to make a Snow Golem, or atop an upright, T-shaped arrangement of iron blocks to make an Iron Golem.

What You Can’t Do With Carved Pumpkins

A carved pumpkin can not be used to make pumpkin pie, nor can it be placed into a crafting table to retrieve four pumpkin seeds, so don’t make the mistake of shearing your pumpkin if you were planning on doing either of these things. 

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That’s everything you need to know about how to carve pumpkins in Minecraft, as well as how to find and what they’re used for. Check out our other Minecraft guides while you’re here, or use our Minecraft seeds articles to find your next favorite seed!