'Scrooge' Who Shamed Neighbor For Not Decorating Gets Response

SOLANO COUNTY, CA — Living on Candy Cane Lane and Lollipop Lane in Vacaville comes with its responsibilities. So says the person who wrote a scathing letter to their neighbor for not decorating their home this year for the holidays. The anonymous letter Lollipop Lane resident Lyndia Ives Zarra reports receiving in her mailbox the day after Christmas goes something like this:

"The honor, privilege and the huge responsibility of decorating the house is a decades old tradition that the residents of Candy Cane Lane and Lollipop Lane take very seriously. A tradition the entire city of Vacaville and surrounding communities love and have enjoyed for decades. It is completely unacceptable to not decorate a house for Christmas if you live on Candy Cane Lane or Lollipop Lane. Those that will not respect this long-standing tradition to decorate their house on Candy Cane Lane and Lollipop Lane should not be living on the special streets.

"It is extremely disrespectful, rude and selfish to not decorate a house on these two special and unique streets for the holidays. And tens of thousands of people wish all the Scrooges would not destroy our cities traditions for their own selfish reasons."

It's a responsibility, rather a "choice," Zarra reports taking part in for the six years she's been a resident. Each year she has hung decorations handmade by her mother. This year, the holidays came a bit too soon for Zarra, whose mother died in October after a brief battle with cancer. Zarra says she returned home Dec. 1 after her mother's illness took her out of state for three months. So it was "heartbreaking" when she read the anonymous letter shaming the "Scrooges" of Candy Cane Lane and Lollipop Lane who did not decorate their houses, she told Fox40.

" ... It's not like I was trying to make the street ugly or whatever," Zarra told the news station. "I just had to deal with my family and I."

She also wrote a reply titled, "Please Think before you shame someone on Christmas." She shared her response publicly on a local Facebook page, "Solano County Community Awareness," in the hopes some of her neighbors would see it and would understand:

"My decorations did not go out this year ... The past 4 months have been hard on my family. I was out of the state for 3 months caring for my mother who had stage 4 liver cancer. She died in October. I had to handle everything before I could come home. I came home Dec 1.
My decorations were MADE BY MY MOTHER!
They are all her artwork and I am supposed to put them out for someones enjoyment while they cause me grief?
You have NO IDEA why someone may choose not to decorate.
You do NOT pay my PG&E bill. (there is no help contrary to rumors)
You do NOT install and maintain my yard (I do it all myself or PAY someone and have to do maintenance everyday including cleaning up your coffee cups and dog poop).
We have CHOSEN to be involved in this tradition for 6 years (how long we have lived here) so far.
It will continue.
To the coward that hides behind anonymity who sent this letter to me: I hope you had a MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Please think before you shame someone on Christmas!
Next year when you come down our street to POLICE our "responsibility"; please don’t.
Enjoy those who CHOOSE to decorate for YOUR enjoyment and leave the others in peace.
I hope next time you consider sending a letter; please don't.
YOU are the SCROOGE in this story."

Since her post late Wednesday afternoon, Zarra has received nearly 500 comments. Many agree with the grieving woman's decision to not decorate this year. One commenter suggested the community should have come together to decorate Zarra's home. "Wouldn’t that have been a better outcome? Or why don’t they know their neighbors enough to ask what’s going on especially if they know this family decorates yearly? Why aren’t we choosing to be kind? People can be such jerks!"

On another Facebook comment thread, a woman who lives on Candy Cane Lane expressed disappointment that her neighbor on Lollipop Lane received such a "nasty" letter.

"Residents on these two streets are not required to decorate," Zarra's neighbor wrote. "We are not HOA. We do it voluntarily and from our hearts for 27 years now. We go through things in life just like other people do - surgeries, deaths, physical ailments ... I hope the author of that letter thinks twice before judging others in the future but then there are those who have no clue and they never will."

Image via piter324/Pixabay