Brisbane couple's Christmas display targeted by Grinches
A Brisbane couple whose incredible Christmas lights display went viral last year has been targeted by Grinches, forcing them to scale back this year's festivities.
David and Chloe Strickland told Today they tried to be sensitive to their neighbours needs, but all they were trying to do was bring some holiday cheer to the street.
Instead, they received multiple complaints the display was too bright and caused traffic congestion on the road out the front.
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Neighbours complained the display causes too much traffic congestion and the money invested into it should be going to charity instead. TikTok
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The couple said last year's display went viral on social media beyond their expectations and they did everything in their power to try and accommodate the community.
"We copped a bit of backlash last year for the amount of traffic that we brought into the estate, unfortunately, there's only one entry in and out, so it was taking people a little while longer to get home from work, which we understand," Chloe said.
"But we tried to do the best we could, we worked with council and put traffic management plans in place and what not, but we got 270 million views on one of the TikTok videos, so it kind of blew up beyond what we expected."
Chloe and David were just trying to bring some holiday cheer to their community. Today
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David also revealed the cost of putting on such a display went well above $50,000 and they even copped backlash for that from keyboard warriors on social media.
"It's not cheap, there's the cost which the wife sees and then there's the actual cost," he said.
"And we've got some backlash for that too with people saying we should donate that to homeless people and food banks instead, but we did do some charity fundraising last year."
So this year, the couple have scaled back the display, but people on social media already know about it and they are still promising to come back in droves.
"I mean, it's certainly gone viral again so I think the resounding message from our supporters is that they're still going to turn up and support us, which is really special," Chloe said.
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