ManitobaBrad and Roxanne Wallace’s annual Christmas display is illuminated by more than 7,000 colourful lights and numerous displays, but this year, it also came with a lot of red tape.A complaint prompted an order from the city to take the display down, but permit came in St. Nick of timeDarren Bernhardt · CBC News · Posted: Nov 26, 2025 3:17 PM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.The tunnel of Christmas lights on McAdam Avenue will stay up until Jan. 4, after the homeowners were originally given an order by the city to remove it. (Submitted by Brad Wallace)Brad and Roxanne Wallace’s annual Christmas display is illuminated by more than 7,000 colourful lights and numerous displays, but this year, it also came with a lot of red tape.A 17-metre stretch of public sidewalk in front of their home in Winnipeg’s Garden City neighbourhood has been lined with a dozen arches, made of rebar and PVC pipe, and layered in lights.”It’s literally a tunnel,” Brad Wallace said about the latest addition to their annual display at 724 McAdam Ave.The couple — known as the McAdam Santa and Mrs. Claus — go all out with the decorations, expanding the display a little each year.”It morphs,” said Wallace, who is 70 but likes to say he’s about 1,700 in St. Nick years.The arch involved $1,855 in materials and took three days to assemble. But it became a tunnel to trouble and yuletide bureaucracy just days after it went up earlier this month. “We pretty much know in the neighbourhood that we have a Grinch,” Wallace said.The display in the Wallace yard has grown a little more every year, and features a four-passenger sleigh and team of reindeer. (Bradford Earl Wallace/Facebook)A city bylaw officer showed up, acting on a 311 complaint, to have a look. He came back two days later and said “it’s gotta come down,” according to Wallace, who immediately began making calls.”I phoned every number I possibly could … to see if I could get this [approved],” but the city “said it might interfere with the [snow] plowing operation.”So Wallace went to the city yards and got measurements for the tallest sidewalk plow, which is just over two metres.”It didn’t seem to be a problem but they said no. They wouldn’t give me any co-operation whatsoever,” he said.He then reached out to Devi Sharma, his city councillor, who told him to keep the arches up while she looked into it.”Then I guess the boots hit the ground. Next thing you know, I’m getting calls from the permit office, [asking], ‘When can we come down and do some measurements?'” Wallace said.As the deadline for taking it down came and went, the arches stayed. On Tuesday, the biggest present arrived for the Wallaces.Sharma showed up with a permit allowing the display to stay up until Jan. 4. And it came with the Black Friday price of $140 — half the normal cost.Asked how he managed to swing that, Wallace said, “I’m Santa.”CBC News reached out to Sharma but has not heard back.Brad and Roxanne Wallace appear at community events as Santa and Mrs. Claus and donate money raised by their light display to local charities. (Bradford Earl Wallace/Facebook)Wallace, who began adopting the jolly elf identity in 2016 — and answers his phone by saying “Ho, ho, ho, it’s Santa Brad” — thinks the trouble was all because the city had no precedent to go by.”I mean, what crazy person would spend, you know, $1,800 and put arches over a sidewalk?”Fundraising for local charitiesHe says his neighbours on both sides of his house are ecstatic about it, even if he had to borrow about three metres of one neighbour’s frontage.The response from the public has also been unbelievable, he said.”People are coming by at all times, taking pictures and videos.”The attraction also helps raise money for local charities, such as the Winnipeg Humane Society and the Salvation Army. There is a donation box in the yard, and for those who don’t carry cash, an e-transfer option.When the Wallaces moved into their home in 2006, the block was pretty much dark over Christmas, other than a few simple lights on eavestroughs, they said. Over the past decade, they’ve built up the spirit on the street.”We added more lights each year and then more things,” Brad Wallace said. “We’re always open to ideas.”Additions include inflatables and a four-passenger sleigh. Once the sleigh was there, it needed a team of reindeer, so those were added too.Wallace says he’s doing his bit to help make up for the loss of the light displays that normally line Portage Avenue.The city is replacing the poles those fixtures normally sit on, so they’re not up this year, and may not be next year, either.”Manitoba Hydro, I’m one of their best customers now,” Wallace said.He’s not alone.Their whole McAdam block is lit up now with some type of display, and the enthusiasm has spread around the corner onto Sinclair Street.Well, not quite everyone, Wallace admitted. There is one house, he said, with “absolutely no lights whatsoever.”ABOUT THE AUTHORDarren Bernhardt has been with CBC Manitoba since 2009 and specializes in offbeat and local history stories. He is the author of two bestselling books: The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent, and Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravity and More Lesser Known Histories.With files from Marcy Markusa and Cory Funk
Winnipeg Santa confronted with red tape over colourful Christmas display
