Santa’s House forced to leave Victoria Park in London, Ont.
CTV
The founder of a London, Ont. charity for terminally ill children is calling the city of London a ‘Grinch.’
The founder of a London, Ont. charity for terminally ill children is calling the city of London a ‘Grinch.’
The city has given the TLC Foundation a couple of weeks to remove Santa’s House from Victoria Park in order to prepare for the return of summer festival season.
“We need to get back to that normal arrangement again where we have it for the Christmas season and then it gets packed away for the summer,” says Scott Stafford, director of Parks and Forestry for the City of London.
Prior to the pandemic, the 500 square foot structure was taken apart piece by piece with cranes, flatbed trucks and they removed the inside panelling and wiring.
For the past two years, the city allowed the building to remain year-round. They will allow it to return again as a vendor after Remembrance Day but the founder of the charity says that isn’t possible.
“After six years, we've come to the notion that it just can't be taken down because there's too much structural damage every time you move it and take it down and store it,” says Leo Larizza, the founder of the TLC Foundation charity, which operates Santa’s House.
“They've asked us to take down the house and move it to a storage but unfortunately, we cannot store that house any further. So it really means the end of Santa’s House unless we can arrange something with the city.”
