Ontario family pulling plug on light show and leaving town over targeted new bylaw, but mayor says he’s no ‘Grinch’
The Williams Lightshow in Kingsville attracts thousands of people each year, creating a nuisance for nearby neighbours according to the town
An elaborate and truly Griswoldian Christmas light show held annually at a southern Ontario home, drawing hundreds of spectators to the subdivision each night, won’t be going ahead this year and the family that puts it on is blaming the municipality for its demise.
The Williams clan of Kingsville, Canada’s most southerly town, is also pulling up stakes and selling the family home. They said it’s because of a new bylaw that’s too broad and too restrictive of their growing Williams Light Show – a 20-minute computer-coordinated light and music performance that ran three to four times nightly over the course of four weeks on their residential street.
“Ultimately, the bylaw was written specifically to target the William Light Show only,” said Colton Williams, who started the tradition at his grandmother Lois’s house in 2014, moving it to the family home in 2017 and adding a charitable component following her death from cancer that has led to more than $45,000 raised for research.
“The mayor and the council, they have not been supportive and they didn’t plan on being supportive, so they created this bylaw and basically limited myself to only having a display for about 10 hours a week.”
Mayor Dennis Rogers acknowledged that while the bylaw was indeed precipitated by the issues that arose from ongoing and mounting complaints from some of the Williams’ neighbours, the town was supportive of the show and did everything it could to “set them up for success” this year and in years ahead.
“We thought we found a good compromise and we’re definitely sad to see them go,” Rogers told the National Post.
“We had good intentions. We wanted them to be successful, but here we are, unfortunately. To get painted as the Grinch is obviously not a good feeling.”
The bylaw governs large holiday displays — not just Christmas light shows, Rogers emphasized — defined as “an exterior display of lights and decorations that are temporarily installed on private property that can be reasonably expected to create or has previously created nuisance impacts.”
