Christmas calamity: Brisbane’s viral lights cancelled on Christmas Eve

South East Queensland’s biggest and brightest Christmas lights display has been forced to switch off for good after relentless online trolling and a community backlash.

South East Queensland’s biggest and brightest Christmas lights display has been forced to switch off for good after relentless online trolling and a community backlash.

David and Chloe Strickland’s Merry Strickland Christmas display at Burpengary East, north of Brisbane, attracted visitors from far and wide this year, going viral on TikTok.

But the owners say after weeks of abusive messages and threats they have made the difficult decision to turn off the display.

“Seeing my wife in tears, reading through the messages, it’s really upsetting,” Mr Strickland told 9 News.

“When my family doesn’t feel safe at home, that’s where I draw the line.”

Merry Strickland has won multiple awards with their display. Picture: Danica Clayton

According to Mr Strickland, neighbouring houses harassed the young family and raised issues like parking.

However, since news broke that the Stricklands would not be lighting up again, the wider Burpengary wider community has leapt to the defence of the Christmas lovers.

“Absolutely beautiful heartfelt messages, reading those it does give me a lot of hope and makes me remember why I do it,” Mr Strickland said.

Other messages sent to the couple were posted to the display’s Facebook page, which now has over 11,000 followers.

It comes after the Christmas Eve showing – the last of the season – was cancelled due to a severe thunderstorm warning.

December 24 was the final night for visitors to see the epic display and Mr Strickland took to Facebook breaking the news that due to the storms they would not be going ahead on their final night.

Crowds check out the Merry Strickland Christmas display at Burpengary East. Picture Lachie Millard

Many shared their disappointed on the Facebook page.

“What a shame,” one user commented, “thank goodness we went last night,” another said.

Despite the disappointment, hundreds of users shared their gratitude for the family and their hard work.

“Thank you for such amazing effort each year, its brings smiles to people of all ages,” a Facebook user said.

“Hope everything survived Stricklands. You have such a beautiful set up. Thanks for all the amazing joy you bring,” another commented.

Traffic was backed up to the highway exit, and at some points towards Deception Bay underpass according to some visitors. Picture: Facebook

The days leading up to Christmas were hectic for the family as Merry Strickland’s popularity created havoc for Burpengary residents on Saturday night.

After announcing on Saturday they had changed their last night from January 1 to Christmas Eve thousands flocked to the display causing major delays and traffic backed up to the highway.

Zena Dawson took to Facebook to share the traffic delays on Saturday night. Picture: Facebook

Ellie Pillar shared the foot traffic to Facebook on Saturday. Picture: Facebook

It took several keen visitors over an hour to get from the highway to the estate with one Facebook user saying “I’d hate to be a resident in Burpengary East near the north harbour tonight. The line of traffic to go to the Xmas light display is crazy.”

Another user said “it’s insane we went to go have a look but didn’t make it far turned around and went home.”

But despite the chaos many said it was still worth the wait to see the lights.

“Pretty crazy wait, but seeing that giant Santa made it so worth it,” one visitor said.