Tis the Season to Sing … Pumpkin Carols?

My mom served as the Troop Leader for my sister’s Girl Scout Troop, and being too small to be left alone for fear I’d try to make Jiffy Pop without adult supervision, she dragged me along to the weekly meetings.  Let me tell you, as a five-year-old boy, watching paint dry is instantaneous compared to waiting for a bunch of nine-year-old girls to finish crafting god’s eyes with popsicle sticks and yarn.

A Happy Memory

However, one of my happiest memories of being taken hostage by Juliette Gordon Low fanatics centered around a troop Halloween party where my mom led the girls in a rousing chorus of pumpkin carols.  Imagine Hallow’s Eve-themed lyrics set to the tunes of familiar Christmas carols.  As a kid, they were fun.  Mom would sometimes initiate a pumpkin carol singalong in the car during October, and we would rock the station wagon with our Halloween spirit.

I Remember … or Do I?

I forgot all about pumpkin carols until fifteen years ago when I mentioned them to a friend while planning a ghost story party.  He’d never heard of them.  I wondered if perhaps a false memory had been planted in my mind during one of the times aliens abducted me during the middle of the night, but my mom confirmed she did indeed lead the troop in a pumpkin carol songfest.  Curious, I asked her if she still had a copy of them, but she said she had no idea where they were.  An internet search at the time produced no results.

Mystery Solved

Fast forward to 2022, and lots of information is available about pumpkin carols.  It turns out they originated in The Peanuts Book of Pumpkin Carols that were published after the premier of It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  The pamphlet includes: “Deck the Patch,” “Great Pumpkin Is Coming to Town,” “I Heard the Bells on Halloween,” “I’m Dreaming of the Great Pumpkin,” “O Pumpkin Cards,” “Pumpkin Bells,” and “The 12 Days of Halloween.”  

New Memories and Traditions for Your Family

You can find the lyrics in Retroist’s Peanuts Pumpkin Carols post.  Check them out and create new memories and traditions this October!