A Sooke family is receiving an outpouring of support after sharing a nasty letter sent to them about their Christmas decorations.
Cheryl Dinse went to her mailbox and found the anonymous letter on Dec. 13.
“When I opened it up, I kind of was shocked at first,” she said. “A little bit fearful that somebody is angry at me.”
The unsigned letter said: “Why don’t you give our neighbourhood a break. Haven’t you heard that less is more? Your house is the joke of the neighbourhood. It looks more like Santa’s whorehouse or a Christmas abortion. Tone it down a bit!”
Now, people across Canada are reaching out to tell Dinse how much they love her decorations.
“There are a lot of people that have now personally contacted me,” she said.
A card was slipped under the gate, and a note was left on the fence expressing thanks for the “beautiful decorations,” Dinse said. “I thought it was so nice.”
Another stranger dropped off a bottle of wine and a bunch of chocolates.
A group of women brought her a Starbucks gift card and another group came to sing Christmas carols outside the house on Firwood Place.
Dinse is focusing on the positive now and thinks the person who sent the rude letter might be concluding that it had backfired.
“To walk past now, they’re probably grumbling under their breath,” she said.
Dinse has said decorating the house for the holidays helps her cope with the loss of her son, who died in September.
“My thoughts haven’t been focused on losing my son, so it’s been really helpful.”
Every year, for the last 12 years, they’ve decorated their house for the holidays. But never have they been so busy since the Grinch letter.
“I couldn’t even get out there and have a moment. The cars were going by, like every 10 seconds, and stopping in front of the house,” Dinse said, noting people are stopping to take photographs.
