Viral Brisbane Christmas lights shuts down after abusive messages

A viral Christmas lights display has been forced to pull the plug after abusive and threatening messages to family behind the attraction.

The creators of Brisbane’s biggest and brightest Christmas light displays have been forced to go dark in 2024 after the family were subjected to crude comments and threats on social media.

‘Merry Strickland’ in Burpengary East became a favourite among the Christmas lights community, decking out the entire home with more than 60,000 lights and giant inflatables creating a display that could apparently be seen from space.

However, last Christmas David Strickland and his family were subjected to abusive messages leaving the homeowner who is passionate about all things Christmas with no choice but to pull the plug.

David and Chloe Strickland with their children Noah 3, and Piper 5, at their Burpengary East home covered in Christmas lights. Picture: Lachie Millard

“When you see your own family in tears, it really makes you question what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,” Mr Strickland said.

“Obviously, I do it for all the right reasons and to bring joy and bit of Christmas spirit, but unfortunately social media is not a nice place and it brings out the best and worst in everyone.”

On Saturday night he took to the display’s Facebook page to reveal their much smaller, “cheekier” lights which he said was for the “one per cent”, captioning the post with “and...we’re done for 2024 @followers @everyone” and two middle finger emojis.

The Stricklands have pulled the plug on their epic light display this year.

“It’s definitely some tongue-in-cheek ... but I wanted to show them that I just wanted to have fun this year,” he said.

From personal attacks threatening to “cut all of the lights” to comments leaving himself, his wife Chloe and two young children “not feeling safe” in their home, Mr Strickland said it got to a point where he was forced to put his family first.

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

“What people don’t see is the joy that it brings, so it’s hard ... not doing it because we see how much joy it does bring,” he said.

“We went above and beyond in terms of what we actually legally needed to do, I didn’t need to apply for the permit, I didn’t need to do the traffic plan, but we did that to try and accommodate so that there wasn’t any backlash.”

While the display had been popular for a number of years, 2023 saw the Strickland home go viral amassing more than 200 million views on TikTok and featuring on international news bulletins in Greece and the United States.

Along with raising money for the Burpengary community, the family made steps with their local council to create a safe parking area down the road from the property due to the amount of people flocking to the street.

To the disappointed fans of the larger-than-life display, Mr Strickland said Merry Strickland could very well return in the future.

“Christmas is a special time for families ... it really brings everyone together, so I think that whilst we’re not as bright this year, it’s still a special time and there’s actually a lot of beautiful homes out there in the community that they can go and see and enjoy.”