Utah Family Slammed for Halloween Decor Featuring Guillotine Beheading a Fake Baby: 'Way Too Far'
A Utah family who spruced up their yard with some seriously spooky Halloween decorations is facing criticism from neighbors who say displaying fake dead babies was a step too far.
Julie Bawden told CBS affiliate KUTV that she and her family enjoy the challenge each year of creating a creepy and original Halloween display in their Brigham City front yard.
“It’s fun, we can kind of be creative with our ideas,” she said. “We come up with new ideas every year, we get to buy all the fun stuff.”
But this year, the Bawdens’ ideas have rubbed some the wrong way, with many in particular taking issue with a large guillotine beheading baby dolls.
Other parts of the display include a nurse standing above an incubator with bloody babies, and a mannequin with a slit throat.
Bawden said several people have complained to the city council about the decorations, and that she received not one, but two visits from city council members checking in, though she adds that they “thought it was all fun.”
“How far are they going to go? Where are we going to stop?” neighbor Claudia Perry told KUTV. “The babies out there and that kind of thing, that’s going way too far.”
Another local named Kaycie told the outlet she found it unacceptable that she received a citation for having overgrown weeds in her front yard, but that dead baby decorations were deemed okay.
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“Displaying it so blatantly, it takes people’s choice away,” she said. “You don’t really have a choice when it’s right out there in the public eye.”
Bawden, meanwhile, has no plans to back down, and told KUTV she wishes her neighbors would just loosen up.
“I’m not sure why they can’t just let us have a good time and be creative,” she said. “If it was more realistic, if the dolls were crying and moving around, I would feel like maybe that would be crossing the line a little bit, but I don’t think we are.”
City Attorney Michael Christiansen told the outlet that while the display is “distasteful to some,” it’s not considered a public nuisance.
