I've decided to model something for this creative contest :)
My model is based on the low poly modelling technique. The rendering and modeling done in 3Ds max. You can download a trial version of this software.
Happy Halloween!

Step 1: Create a Sphere

- Create a sphere with 24 segments and radius of your choice (8.5cm).
- Select and convert newly created sphere to "editable poly".
- Activate Edge select mode (hotkey: 2)
- Select edges, like you see on the screenshot, and using graphite modeling tools, Loop the selected edges.
- Extrude edges
- Select non extruded edges, loop them like you did previously and scale them slightly up.

Step 2: Prepare Pumpkin for Cutting, Adding a Tail.

- Switch to top view and activate Polygon selection (hotkey 4).
- Select center top polygons and "make planar" in Z direction.
- Repeat with bottom poly's.
- Activate Vertex selection, select top and the bottom vertices mode and turn on soft selection.
- Scale down selected vertices in Z direction.
- Select center top and bottom vertices, hold ctrl and click on Polygon selection mode, grow selection and delete unnecessary poly's.
- Switch to border mode, press ctrl+a to select all available borders (where top and bottom poly's were deleted) and press "cap" in "Edit Borders" rollout.
- Select newly created top polygons and extrude them few times. On each extrusion try turn poly's and scale them down until you'll see cute little tail :)
- Turn off Poly editing mode and, while holding Shift key, scale the pumpkin down. By doing so, you will create a scaled copy. We will need this copy to cut our pumpkin inside, to make it hollow.

Step 3: Cutting the Pumpkin!

- While in Polygon editing mode select a tail poli's on a scaled down pumpkin copy and delete whole tail.
- Select border (in Border editing just press ctrl+a) and "cap" it
- Select bigger pumpkin and, in Geometry creation menu, select "Compound Objects", press "Boolean" or "ProBoolean"
- Now in ProBoolean, press "Pick Operand B" and pick the small pumpkin, then convert Boolean pumpkin to Editable poly.
- Create a cylinder, position it on the bottom of the pumpkin to cut a hole in it for tea-light. The size of cyl .depend on your tea-light's size.
- Select the pumpkin and cut it using Boolean (or ProBoolean) and newly created cylinder, convert it to Editable Poly again.
- Apply TurboSmooth modifier, but don't go high on Iterations. To many polygons will more likely create some errors in the future when we will need to cut pumpkin again.

Step 4: Finish!

- Create a spline, extrude it and position it right to make a final cut in our nice pumpkin.
- Cut the pumpkin with extruded spline, fix geometry if needed and voila!
Happy Halloween!