Like many Americans, Rebecca Tisbert didn’t think twice when it came time for her family to buy their Christmas tree and place it in the front window of their Chesterfield County home.

“It’s pretty much an annual thing for us, buying a tree, strapping it on top of the car, and decorating it with one another,” the 42-year-old Tisbert said, sitting in her quaint Southside living room as her two young children watched television nearby.  

So it came as a surprise to the local teacher when the chief of her subdivision, Deer Haven Terrace, said the tree, lights, and ornaments had to go.  Unfortunately for the Tisberts, who moved into the $550,000 home in June, the regulation was written as clear as day in the subdivision’s 409-page Code of Conduct, Rule 32-B6: “Homeowners are to never outwardly display holiday ornamentation, including lawn decoration, house illumination, or showcase of interior evergreenery.”

Tisbert said that had she known such a clause existed in their neighborhood association’s contract, “we’d have thought twice about moving here.”

The response from the subdivision?  Tough luck.

Deer Haven neighborhood association president Nicholas P. Singley said this morning that while the Tisbert family may have bought the tree with good intentions, the family should have known better than to purchase the Douglas fir without reading the Deer Haven Behavior Book, now in its 15th volume.

“These folks, the Tisberts, moved into this subdivision with the understanding that everyone is to mow their lawn in a similar fashion, keep exterior house paints no brighter or darker than the color ‘tan,’ and under no circumstances bring trees – however festive – inside the home,” said Singley, who next year will enter his fifth year as Deer Terrace president, a staunch Democrat who has already earned a reputation as a strict enforcer of the 170-home subdivision’s rules and regulations.  

The Tisbert’s neighbors were equally as preturbed.

“This family has shown a brazen disregard for the proper code of conduct for this neighborhood,” said Mike Babb, who has lived in his two-story Colonial for nearly 13 years and explained that he has never seen such disrespect toward the community.  “Particularly with the way Mr. [David] Tisbert tossed up those multi-colored lights on the tree without any sort of planning, it makes me sick.”

While the Tisberts said they plan to take their case to the next subdivision hearing, Singley said the family has three days to remove the tree from the home or could face a fine of up to $250,000, five years in prison, or have the children sold into a life of slavery.

2 Comments so far

1. alex on December 11, 2008 10:59 am

   lovely. i’d say to the tisberts, pack your bags and get out of there before you’re awaken in the middle of the night by your neighborhood zombies.

   or risk having your children sold into a life of slavery when you organize an egg hunt in your own yard for easter. your call.

2. Gnome on December 14, 2008 8:46 pm

   Hmmm, sounds strangely like this is really in the 43rdSt artsy-fartsy corridor, no?