Incredible Naumkeag Pumpkin Show

In days of yore, children of sufficient age and dexterity were given knives (perish the thought), a marker of some kind and a pumpkin to carve. Jangle-toothed Jack-o-Lanterns with uneven eyes and crooked noses were the inevitable result but, with a candle stuck inside, they made a scary-enough decoration for Halloween.

Since those days, pumpkins have provided the surface for increasingly sophisticated designs, some with bas-relief etchings in their skins or complex silhouettes of figures carved out of their surfaces. Some are painted with comic faces, others with floral or other designs—a long way from the grimacing, contorted countenances of old.

Naumkeag, a 48-acre public garden and historic home at 5 Prospect Hill Road in Stockbridge MA, will provide a seasonal panoply of pumpkin art this fall with more than 1,500 jack-o-lanterns, hundreds of mums, pumpkins and countless gourds—most grown right at Naumkeag.

The pumpkin extravaganza begins Friday, October 1st and continues Wednesdays through Sundays through October 31st, from 4-8:30PM. Some days are already sold out and early reservations are recommended by going to thetrustees.org.

Hot cider and fall treats will be available for sale on-site.

Advanced purchase of timed tickets is required (one ticket per person). Tickets will not be sold on site. Ticket time represents the visitor’s arrival window and visits are limited to one hour.

Parking will be on site in the lower parking lot located in the Stockbridge Town Cemetery, not by the usual entrance off of Prospect Hill Road. GPS coordinates for the entrance are: 42°17’12.6″N 73°19’13.9″W off Church Street. A shuttle will transport visitors.