Christmas decorations divide opinion
Nelsonians appear divided over the city’s new Christmas decorations.
Public opinion on the banners and other decorations put up in the central city range from ‘‘nice and refreshing’’ to an ‘‘embarrassment’’ and ‘‘something from a medieval jousting match’’.
The banners featuring Nelson summer scenes, including barbecuing, skinny dipping and Pohutukawa trees were put up at the start of the month.
They have been criticised online and elsewhere for their lack of colour and becoming tangled around their support wires, a problem the city council is trying to fix.
A snap survey in the central city yesterday showed people generally liked the design and thought it was a good idea to steer away from traditional Christmas decorations.
But others said the banners lacked colour and got tangled up.
They are part of a $100,000 budget for decorations, including a 13-metre decorated wilding pine on the Church Steps, and coloured umbrellas placed in trees.
The scaled-up decorations followed criticism last year when Nelson mayor Rachel Reese copped flak for the council’s apparent forgetfulness over a festive display.
For Nelson man Trevor Marshall the extra money has not been worth it.
He said he couldn’t find the decorations when he went out with friends on a Friday night to check out upper Trafalgar St.
‘‘When we did find them the comments from everybody were disbelief, that these were the Christmas decorations that were supposed to be something really special.
‘‘It’s a bit of an embarrassment, there’s no colour in them, I know we may try something not so traditional, but at least the Christmas tree could have been lit up.’’
He said the ‘‘old pine tree’’ looked like it had been ‘‘whacked out of the forest’’.
‘‘It’s as if Christmas isn’t really happening, if that’s our attitude to Christmas that’s pretty pathetic.
‘‘If they spend $100k on it I would be sacking the person responsible for that effort.’’
Marshall said he spotted a few flags ‘‘in a washed out colour, mainly hidden in the tree, wrapping around their wire’’.
The few umbrellas he saw looked ‘‘like they came from a medieval jousting match’’.
Marshall said he thought the council should start a project where each year the community would make reusable ornaments and decorations to add to the existing ones.
Simply Travel’s Amanda Woodthorpe said she liked the new decorations because they weren’t the usual traditional ones.
‘‘We don’t have a snowy Christmas, it’s different here, maybe we should embrace that more.’’
But she said the banners weren’t very visible, and she had to look closely to see what was on them. ‘‘Someone visiting may not notice that they’re Christmas themed.’’
Nelson City Council group manager, infrastructure Alec Louverdis said it had received ‘‘both positive and negative feedback’’ on the decorations.
‘‘This is the usual response we get to any project with an artistic element as everyone has differing tastes,’’ he said.
He said the banners had been unfurled by contractors but continued to get tangled up.
The council was discussing a long term solution with contractors, suppliers and the artist.
‘‘This may involve attaching weight to the bottom of the banners but this is still being finalised.’’
Former councillor and local artist Mike Ward was chosen by the council to design and create a theme the decorations, helped by ‘‘half a dozen’’ local artists.