Cereal Box Pumpkin Puppets

When my parents moved out of their house my mom brought over all of their Halloween decorations so I could use them. It was nice to go through the box and find pieces of my childhood home. My mom kept a bunch of the decorations my brother and I made in elementary school, and Annie absolutely loved seeing those, but she was particularly taken by a cereal box pumpkin puppet that my brother made about twenty-seven years ago.

I remember making these puppets as well, but mysteriously, my mother only kept Kyle’s. SUSPICIOUS.

Annie asked me if she could make a pumpkin puppet, and after I inspected it I figured we could. I mean, if I could make one at age seven, I certainly could at age thirty-four, right?

To make them, you need:

Fun-Sized Cereal Boxes (I found mine at Smart & Final)
Construction paper in “pumpkin” colors
A ruler
A pencil
Glue stick
Scissors (or an x-acto knife)
Markers or crayons

The first thing you need to do is trace the cereal box onto construction paper. Trace the sides, top, bottom and the back of the box (note: front and back are arbitrary) onto your orange paper. Then, trace the front of the box onto yellow paper. Cut out all the pieces.

Fold the long pieces (the ones that will go on the sides of the box) in half, then cut them. Do the same with the big orange piece that goes on the back of the box. Then set all the pieces of construction paper off to the side.

Find the halfway point on your box, and mark it.

Cut the back and sides of the box where you marked the halfway point, but leave the front of the box intact. The first one of these I cut with scissors, but an x-acto knife is a million times easier (but not kid safe, obviously).

Once you’ve cut open your box, fold it backwards so the bag of cereal pops out easily. I hadn’t had Corn Pops since 1989 so I obviously didn’t share. My sugar high was glorious.

Glue on the previously cut pieces of construction paper.

Fold your yellow piece in half, then glue it to the folded side of the box.

It’s time to decorate! Cut a piece of brown or green paper for the stem, and fold it like the above picture. Glue it to the top of your pumpkin. I assembled a few pumpkins and had Annie and Mike decorate their own.

Annie totally tried to copy.

I pre-cut some yellow triangles out of construction paper for Annie. You can do that, or you can decorate with pens, crayons, stickers, whatever you want! For being three-years-old, Annie did very well with the glue stick. And for being thirty-seven, Mike didn’t do so badly, either!

The OG Cereal Box Pumpkin Puppet approves.