My neighbour saw my Halloween decorations & sent me threatening notes, I worried she would torch my front garden
WHEN Lia Adams-Steele decided to decorate for Halloween she never imagined the backlash she would receive.
The mum-of-two from Bristol spent weeks constructing her Hansel & Gretel themed scene in her front garden of the Longwell Green area of the city, complete with a lifesize gingerbread house and three witch figures.
However, just days after erecting her display Lia, 37, was horrified to receive a letter from a neighbour complaining about her decorations.
The typed note read: “Dear resident of number [redacted.]
“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.”
The letter goes on to say that while Lia might be ‘free to express herself, unless she is renting’ the family had gone ‘a bit too far.”
Lia admits that the letter came as a shock and even left her feeling ‘quite scared.’
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, she says: “I found it quite scary that someone from nearby wrote a letter like this.
“It worried me that they seemed to know a lot about us and the fact that we were renting.
“I had no idea who the writer was and I worried about what they might do next to be honest with you.
“I thought his person got p***ed off enough to put so much effort into writing a letter what will happen if I don’t take it down?
“I felt really intimidated, I genuinely worried they might burn my display down.”
Lia and her family wouldn’t typically erect such a large display for Halloween but they had decided to join in with a local tradition last year.
She explains: “In the last 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.”
With the help of her two children, Lia set about creating their biggest spooky display yet – something Lia admits was no easy feat.
“My creative mind just went flying, and I worked out how we could create this Hocus Pocus/ Hansel and Gretel mashup on a budget,” she says.
“We collected pallets and used those to build the gingerbread house from scratch.
“The kids and I used bin bags for the witches bodies and pumpkins for their heads and spent hours painting the house and decorating it with fairy lights.
“It took all of us a couple of weeks to complete around our work and school commitments.
“Neighbours were following our progress and couldn’t wait to see the finished result.”
When they finally finished decorating the overall feedback was overwhelmingly positive, however, it was just days before they received the letter.
Lia admits she was totally baffled by the accusations that their display was too scary.
“Our display was not scary,” she insists.
“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.
Fabulous' Commissioning Editor Martha Cliff weighs in on spooky season
WHILE some might be waiting for Mariah Carey to slowly defrost, I couldn’t care less that Christmas is less than 100 days away.
Has everyone forgotten that there are less than 50 sleeps until the best holiday of the year?
I’ve long preferred Halloween to Christmas and spend most of the year mourning the loss of spooky season.
Not that I don’t find ways to include it into my year.
In April I marked the halfway point to the best day of the year with a ‘half-o-ween’ picnic in a cemetery (where else?). Come July I needed to get my fix again and hosted a ‘Summerween’ barbecue complete with watermelon carving and Piña Ghoul-adas.
Christmas fanatics are often horrified by my snowy-season snub, but for me December is just a slew of stress and overspending.
I don’t know about you but wracking my brains for bigger and better present ideas and spending four times the amount of time and money at the supermarket is not my idea of a good time.
With Halloween there is no expectation to spend. Homemade costumes are often head and tails above the ones sold in the shops and when it comes to decorations what is better than a carved pumpkin that can cost just pennies to achieve?
In January kids return to school bragging about what Santa brought them this year, all with the hope of outdoing each other but November 1st is a different story.
Trick or treating is fair through and through. Unless you’re bribing the neighbours, children all receive the same, and whatsmore for free, eliminating any playground bragging rights.
Above all I love the chaos over curation when it comes to Halloween. There’s no obligation to strive for perfection, in fact the rule is the sillier the better. It’s all the childhood nostalgia of Christmas but without the pressure.
So spare me the Christmas spirit, I’ll opt for a fully fledged ghost any day.
“I was so confused by the feedback.”
Lia admits that after receiving the note she seriously considered taking the display down all together.
“I didn’t want to put children through something horrific after all,” she says.
“But ultimately we had worked too long and too hard on this just to take it down again.
“I stand strong by my belief that I hadn’t done anything wrong and I was not doing anything to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
In need of a second opinion, Lia shared the letter on Facebook where it quickly went viral, amassing thousands of likes and 300 supportive comments from all over the world.
She explains: “I just put a question up onto the Facebook group has anyone ever received anything like this?
“I later shared a photo of the display and then asked whether I should take it down.
“Not one of the comments was negative, everyone was so supportive and reassured us that there was nothing wrong with the decorations.
“I even had people from America messaging me on Facebook to reassure me.”
I think holidays are important, I won’t let one person put me off
Lia Adams-Steele
Lia admits that she will be doing a smaller display this year as she is living in a new area but says that other families should not be discouraged.
She adds: “What I would suggest to anyone who would like to do any decoration, do it, feel free.
“Let your mind fly as far as you can, and try to do as many things as you can at home, including your kids.
“It will create memories with the kids and as a family. It’s amazing to create something together.
“I think holidays are important, I won’t let one person put me off.
“In fact it only spurred me on and last Christmas we repurposed the pallets into a manger.”