Below is an excerpt from the Toronto Star article by Libaan Osman about the ‘Christmas Car’ trend in Toronto.
These Toronto drivers say they’re spreading holiday cheer by wrapping their cars in lights. Police say it’s illegal
Cruising through Toronto’s downtown core, Chris Demaras dials down his radio playing Christmas tunes as pedestrians cheer, wave and hurry to snap a photo of his GMC truck decked out in holiday themed lights.
A young kid shouts, “I like your car!” and a group of men in Santa suits exit a bar yelling in excitement as he drives by in his brightly wrapped Sierra pickup, with a giant inflatable Santa in the bed to boot.
“That’s the definition of Christmas cheer,” said Demaras, who is one of 15 or so car enthusiasts driving around Sankofa and Nathan Phillips squares beaming with thousands of Christmas lights following a meetup outside Rogers Centre on Friday night.
“As I’m driving through my neighbourhood, little kids will stop and they’ll wave. Construction workers, they love it. They always give the thumbs up. Police officers, they love it,” he said. “It just brings this happy, joyful spirit of the season. Adds a little bit of joy to an otherwise drab city of Toronto.”
The trend of wrapping strings of lights, oftentimes on sporty and flashy cars, has been steadily rising on social media in recent years, with sightings popping up online of these multicoloured vehicles zooming by during the holiday season. To some, it’s just a harmless, jolly bit of fun.
But to police, there’s a problem: Having these lights on your vehicle while it’s on the road is illegal — at least on paper.
The Star reached out to several police forces in the Greater Toronto Area — including OPP and in Toronto, York, Peel and Waterloo — to ask if it is legal for people to drive with holiday lights wrapped around their vehicle. All of them said no.
According to the OPP, under section 62 of the Highway Traffic Act, vehicles on Ontario roads must display only white or amber lights on the front and red lights on their rear end. Blue, red and even green flashing lights are restricted to emergency and snow-removal vehicles.
OPP told the Star this is due to the potential of decorative lights creating a safety hazard and confusion for other drivers. The fine varies depending on the offence, but is often $110.
A Star reporter joined Demaras during a two-hour-plus drive in his pickup Friday, and despite passing by several police cruisers downtown, not a single one stopped him.
At a second meetup point at Nathan Phillips Square later in the night, a police officer stopped in front of the large group to flash the cruiser’s lights while nodding and smiling before driving off.
Demaras says he has never been stopped by police for his GMC being wrapped with Christmas lights, adding he has a clean driving record and has even gone out of his way to strike up conversations with officers to get their thoughts on whether they consider it a distraction.
Every answer he’s received has been no.
“Is it because I’m a mature 50-year-old guy? You can’t really see that through the window, can you?” said Demaras, who stays away from flashing red and blue lights on his car. “I think that it’s how you carry yourself.”
Demaras says he will usually have his holiday lights on while driving through residential streets, but whenever he gets on the highway he makes sure to turn them off.
“It’s hard enough driving across the 401. Do I really need bright Christmas lights — I don’t want to use the word distracting — taking attention away from people as they’re trying to focus on driving?”
Said Demaras. “This city has enough problems and I’m not one of them.”
”This is a way that you can spread some cheer, spread some joy, and it’s only positivity,” said Demaras, who is one of the older enthusiasts at these car meetups. “The only time we ever hear about car culture, car community in Toronto is when there’s a bunch of hooligans doing doughnuts in a parking lot at two in the morning, keeping people up. You know what I mean?”
“As a big group like this, it feels like a million bucks,” said Demaras on the three-hour plus night cruising through downtown Toronto. “It’s like our own little private parade.”
This is just a short excerpt; for the full article go to the Toronto Star’s online copy of the newspaper.
Hey! You managed to get some positive press! Congrats!
Thank you. I was worried dude would write a hatchet piece. Or police might be more vigilant in their enforcement this week.
But it turned out alright.
I’ll admit, it occurred to me the police top brass might have been annoyed to hear the street cops letting things slide and in response, painted a target on your back. Glad it worked out.
Nothing like the front cover of the newspaper identifying cops turning a blind eye to create a ‘blitz’ on X-Mas eve!
Cheerful banditry. Lawmakers are Grinches.
Since that day, I put a 9′ Scotch Pine with 2,000 LED lights in the bed of the truck. We’ll see how Officer Grinch reacts this weekend!
There is probably a height limit law you are exceeding, besides lighting up people’s lives.
The problem is the Mickey D’s drive through.. That 11′ maximum height prevents me from getting a Big Mac and eggnog shake. Such a shame.
Can you park and walk in and order?
Yo… Im a driver, not a walker-er.
And sometimes I like to take my pants off jn the truck for added comfort. Not walking into Ronald’s house in my boxers!