Texas Family Vows To Fight Back After Homeowners Association Tells Them To Take Down Christmas Decorations

A Texas family has promised to go to battle with their Homeowners Association (HOA) over their Christmas decorations, which they were told to take down because the neighborhood-management group said it’s “too soon.”

As Yahoo! Lifestyle reports, San Antonio doesn’t get much snow, but that doesn’t stop the Simonis family from enjoying the winter holiday. This year, they’ve put up a festive display that includes inflatable snowmen and an inflatable mockup of a helicopter arriving from the North Pole, with Santa Claus precariously hanging on while a reindeer handles the controls.

And yes, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. But Claudia, a mom to a 7-year-old boy and a 3-year-old boy, is pregnant with Baby no. 3, and she’s due on Christmas Day. Figuring it highly likely that her family would spend at least part of the holiday in the hospital, she decided to put her decorations up a bit early. This way, the boys could get as much Christmas as they can before their new brother or sister upends things.

“I feel kind of heavy, so the earlier we can put out the decorations, the better. Because probably in two more weeks, I’m not going to be able to build all this,” she said.

Unfortunately for Claudia, her husband Nick, and their two boys, their Homeowners Association — Diamond Association Management & Consulting — doesn’t see things that way. The group sent the family a rather matter-of-fact notice that told them to take their Christmas decorations down.

“Maintenance – Holiday Decorations Need To Be Removed… please remove the snowman until closer to the holiday season,” the notice read. It didn’t specify what was meant by “closer to the holiday season.”

The family isn’t having it.

“We’re not going to do it. It’s the Christmas spirit. We’re not going to be forced by the HOA to take it down,” Nick Simonis said.

Their neighbors have their back, too. Neighbor Charles Minton, for example, called the Simonis family’s decorations “very tasteful.” Other neighbors have started a sort of low-key protest, putting up Christmas lights and decorations of their own.

“These are the holidays. This is what we do. We take care of our neighbors. That’s what a neighborhood is about,” Minton said.

Homeowners associations and their sometimes-punctilious enforcement of the rules often make the news, especially when it comes to homeowners’ expressions of their religion or patriotism. For example, earlier this year, as reported at the time by The Inquisitr, an Arizona widow was told by her HOA that she couldn’t display an American flag because it didn’t fit in with the neighborhood’s “look.”