An Ohio Halloween fanatic sparked outrage in her neighborhood when she started setting up her extravagant display months before the spooky night.
Marianne Peters’ “Nightmare on Bibury Street” has been a festive staple in the Fairfield community for seven years but this year, not everybody is on board with her skele-fun yard, according to Fox 19.
Peters said it broke her heart when the city contacted her twice saying people have been complaining about her annual display that takes her 100 hours to build every year — just because she started decorating her house during the second week of August.
“You could have came to me and said something,” Peters told the outlet of her complaining neighbors.
According to a 2021 poll collected by YouGov, 43% of people think the “earliest acceptable time” to display Halloween decorations is between October 1 and 15. Only 13% of people suggest putting up displays between Labor Day and September 30.
In previous years, she’d built the display with her husband closer to the holiday, but cancer and chemotherapy treatments forced Peters to start earlier.
“My husband was diagnosed a year ago with cancer so he can’t do as much after his chemo treatments,” Peters said. “He’s usually down for about two weeks.”
The city allegedly told Peters she wasn’t doing anything wrong and suggested she wait a few more weeks when the timing was more appropriate.
Despite the pushback from neighbors, she’s not even finished building it and not everyone is booing the house.
One community Facebook page has over a dozen people volunteering to help her finish the yard and also take everything down when the holiday is over.
“She still needs help. She has two canopies that need to be put up and items put underneath them plus she still has skeletons that need to go up,” one Facebook user wrote on the community page on Sept. 3.
But others say they understand why complaints are coming in.
“I mean I sorta get it because you don’t wanna see all that gory stuff when it’s not even Halloween yet,” one Facebook user commented.
Peters says the grievances won’t stop her from embracing the fall holiday and she still plans to set up her Halloween exhibit every single year.
On Halloween night, live actors are booked to play monsters on the property and more than 300 kids are expected to come out.
“I just do it because the kids love it, and a lot of the adults love it,” Peters said.
