Pumpkin carver's Halloween side-hustle brings in £20,000 a year

Jamie Jones, a 41 year old professional pumpkin carver from Chester, has revealed that his Halloween side hustle brings in up to £20,000 annually for just two weeks' work. Jamie, who lives with his wife Gemma and their two daughters, discovered his passion for pumpkin carving at the age of 30 and honed his skills by practising on 30 to 40 pumpkins each year "until his fingers bled".

Rather than cutting shapes out of the pumpkins, Jamie uses a unique shading technique to create a three-dimensional effect. After winning a pumpkin carving competition at York Maze in 2018, he launched his business, Pumpkin Freak, in 2019, creating commissions including logos for big-name brands such as Warner Brothers.

Each October, Jamie takes two weeks off from his full-time job as an events and media sales manager to craft around 75 pumpkins, featuring designs of horror icons like Pennywise, Freddy Krueger, the Terrifier and even notorious figures such as Jeffrey Dahmer. His business’ annual turnover is between £10,000 to £20,000 with £4,500 covering costs and £5,000 going to him this year, which is the first time he has taken a cut – because of this, he has been able to cover the costs of his Christmas.

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Jamie told PA Real Life: "This year I wanted to practise carving a face and, quite frankly, I found them both, Putin and Trump, terrifying people so I thought ‘I’m going to stick them on a pumpkin’.

“It was a bit of a trend a couple of years ago, the Trump-kin, so when I realised he was running again this year, I thought: ‘This is the year’.

"My main goal, though, is for this not to feel like a chore and a job.

"Moving forward I want to do fewer commissions but higher