HOA Didn’t Allow Lights On Guy’s Condo, So Covered The Inside Of It In Gaudy Christmas Lights

This story gives me serious Clark W. Griswold vibes from the classic film Christmas Vacation.

And if you know, you know…

The guy who shared it on Reddit got pretty fed up with his HOA so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

“About 20 years ago, my wife and I had just gotten married and we rented a condo where all the windows and sliding door faced the parking area.

My wife, to celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple put a white rope light on the railing on our 2 foot grilling area. It, was nice little gesture.

He got a letter from the HOA.

That night we went out to dinner and when we came home, found a letter under our door. The letter read “All holiday lights must be removed immediately from the exterior portion of the condo.

Christmas or other religious lighting is against HOA policy and failure to remove can result in fines and other legal actions.” My wife felt horrible and I couldn’t believe it. The owner of the condo had left a copy of the HOA regulations and I found a nice little loophole.

It was time for some fun!

Apparently, they could regulate lights on the exterior balcony/grilling area, but not lights inside the condo.

Game on.

I took my wife immediately to the big box hardware store and picked up two fake Christmas trees, about 2,000 colored lights, a light ball and whatever holiday decoration I could find. Our condo had 3 windows and the sliding glass door.

He was gonna go totally overboard!

I filled up each one of those windows with lights, crisscrossing, around the inside of the perimeter of the window and one had the led ball hanging in the center. The sliding door had the Christmas tree in full view completely covered in lights and ornaments. Also the sliding doors were full of Christmas lights.

It was expensive but totally worth it!

My electric bill must have tripled. When you came into the parking lot of the Condo complex, you saw a beacon of light full of Christmas spirit. You probably could see the condo from orbit. And, nothing could be said by the HOA snitch.

Apparently at the next board meeting, a proposed rule change was brought up to limit the amount of “holiday lighting” being shown through windows. It was quietly pointed out by another HOA board member that was an attorney that you probably could not regulate activities inside a person’s dwelling.

I moved out before next year, but I never received another notice.”

Let’s see what Reddit users had to say.

This reader made a funny comment.

Another Reddit user is seeing lights all the time.

This individual shared a nice story.

Another reader shared a hilarious HOA story.

And this person also had an HOA story to tell.

Another day, another HOA horror story.

When are these folks gonna chill out?