Halloween has always been a big holiday for the Nietz family of Coaldale.

“We have almost as many Halloween decorations as Christmas,” said Jeff Nietz.Nietz starts the celebration each year by carving pumpkins. He doesn’t use the standard tools that come with pumpkin carving kits.Instead, he uses a scalpel, X-acto knife and a variety of shaping tools.What started out as carving pumpkins for his family has turned into carving pumpkins with his family. His most intricate carving was from a few years ago, a crest from Harry Potter, which took him three days to carve.Nietz has been carving pumpkins for over 25 years. As his children were growing up he would carve one for each of them, with them choosing the theme.Now, with his extended family growing, he has more requests for pumpkins.His children, Scott, Frank and Lauren, now grown, help with the task.This year the Nietz family carved eight pumpkins.Over the years Nietz has accumulated more than a 100 stencils which he uses to start the job, but also has the option to go online to find more.