She gave ’em pumpkin to talk about.
Lia Adams-Steele, 35, a mom of two from Bristol, England, made a Halloween display from recycled materials that features cobwebs, witches in bright-colored hats, and a spooky gingerbread house with a candy cane doorway, the BBC reports.
Someone spotted the decorations and wrote the family a scathing letter, describing the lawn props as “scary and aggressive.”
“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,” said the letter from the unidentified neighbor.
“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. I realize that you are free to express yourself on your own property — unless you are renting of course. But this feels just a bit too far. And I am sure you did not intend to offend anyone, and just doing it for fun. But perhaps in future I ask kindly that you consider those passing by,” the note continued.
Adams-Steele, who made the display alongside her 7-year-old and 5-year-old, thought it was family-friendly.
“Me and the kids spent days, hours, painting and putting this all together. It was a really special period of time for us working together as a team and seeing how the display was forming a shape,’” she said.
She used the holiday as a chance to teach her kids about the fun of upcycling.
“I find myself coming up with ideas of things we can do that are low budget — using things we have got at home and trying to use rubbish and upcycling to show the kids that out of recycling, you can create something amazing,” she explained.
Adams-Steele said some neighbors saw her constructing the festive exhibit and cheered her on.
She felt like the scariest part was the letter she received.
“I think it’s more scary someone went to the effort of typing up the letter to be honest,” she said.
“In 2023 I feel a little bit scared that I had to receive a letter like this,” she added.
She wished the letter writer could have at least given her their name so she could apologize.
On the flip side, Adams-Steele said she received over 300 Facebook comments supporting her Halloween decorations.
“I’m not a bad person, I’m not an evil person — I’m just a mom who wanted to make their kids happy with creating something special so I am keeping the display,” she shared.
“I don’t mind whoever has written the letter, but I think I deserved a name to the letter, so at least I can say to this person I am truly sorry I’ve offended you or caused a nightmare. I don’t think an anonymous letter was fair.”
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