When Lia Adams-Steele set up her Halloween display in her front garden, she didn’t anticipate the negative reaction that would follow.
The mum-of-two, from Bristol, felt terrified after receiving a letter from an displeased neighbour. After spending hours and hours constructing three witch figures, a cauldron on top of a fake fire, and a gingerbread house, she didn’t expect a complaint.
But shortly after putting the Halloween display together, Lia received a typed-up note addressed to her.
The note stated: « Dear resident… as a member of the Longwell Green community, I would like to ask you to be considerate of young children and others who may not be comfortable viewing your outdoor displays, which are quite scary and aggressive.
« Not everyone celebrates Halloween. Images of witches/occult and such like can be offensive and scary to some, and actually gave nightmares to my child, who has to pass these most days. »
Speaking to Fabulous, Lia said: « I found it quite scary that someone from nearby wrote a letter like this. I had no idea who the writer was and I worried about what they might do next to be honest with you. »
Lia feared what could happen if she didn’t take down her Halloween display and felt « intimidated » – it wasn’t like she knew who the writer of the letter was to have a conversation about it.
Plus, it’s not like it was only her house that was putting on a show for Halloween, so why was she the only one being targeted?
Lia explained: « In the past few years, the whole Halloween thing became a biggie in my area of Longwell Green. Local residents created a Facebook page where you can tag your display and it will be featured on the trail map so kids know to trick or treat there. I was really inspired by other people’s displays and decided we could do something really big this year. »
What baffled Lia the most when she received the complaint last year was that other households had much scarier displays.
« Our display was not scary, » Lia insisted. « There was no blood or body parts anywhere, we had nothing jumping out and scaring children like a lot of the other houses I’d seen. »
Lia now stands by her belief she she « hadn’t done anything wrong » after posting the anonymous letter on Facebook alongside pictures of her display.
« Not one of the comments was negative, everyone was so supportive and reassured us that there was nothing wrong with the decorations, » she said.
This year, Lia will be doing a smaller Halloween display in her new home in a different area.
