Heartbroken volunteers hit back after town Christmas tree labelled 'embarrassing'
A small business owner has defended a modest Christmas tree outside his UK cafe decorated by community volunteers, after keyboard warriors called it “embarrassing”.
Locals at Leigh Park near Portsmouth, joined Derek and Tracy Powell to decorate the tree last Friday, which the pair said was “wonderful to see”.
But after pictures of the fruits of their labour were circulated on Facebook over the weekend, people on social media were quick to call the decorations “awful” and “embarrassing”.
“The initial reaction was wonderful, we had a lot of people come in their own time under extreme weather conditions,” Mr Powell, 52, told Portsmouth’s The News.
“We did the very best we could.
“We had lots of little children, lots of elderly people and help from the locals which was wonderful to see.”
Mr Powell and his wife were “devastated” to read the criticism online on Sunday.
“There was a lot of negativity. People didn’t realise this was not done by the council, these were decorations that people had donated,” he said.
Even the tree itself was donated from another local store, he said.
Following the online backlash, more donations have been dropped off to dress up the tree when the Powells host a second decorating attempt this Sunday morning.
