A car fitted with dozens of lights and a Christmas tree on the roof has been seen driving on Dutch roads. While the driver was just trying to spread the Christmas spirit, it was seen as unsafe and the car had to be pulled off the Vlissingen streets.

The car of Christmas spirit in Dutch city

While you can transport a Christmas tree on the roof of a car without getting a fine in the Netherlands, you are not allowed to roam the streets with a car covered in lights, as the driver of this Christmas spectacle discovered.

Even if the police thought the decorations were festive and fit the mood of the holiday season perfectly, they unfortunately couldn’t let it stay on the roads due to traffic rules. “This is not allowed, because if everyone were to use so many lights, there is a risk of blinding and in this case also a distraction,” the Walcheren police wrote on social media. “You can imagine that everyone keeps looking at this striking spectacle.”

Luckily for the Vlissingen resident, the police officers were feeling merry enough to let the man off with an official warning instead of a traffic fine. 

Cheery reactions to Dutch Christmas car spectacle

There has been an influx of positive reactions to the festively decorated car on social media. “Great, in these polarising times we need something cheerful,” wrote one user. Yet, some also understood why it couldn’t stay on the roads. “If it poses a danger to fellow human beings and road users, it is no longer fun. Despite the fact that it looks great.”

The inspiration for the colourful twinkling car could have come from the YouTuber Enzo Knol, who decorated a car similarly before driving it through a McDonald’s drive-through while wearing a Santa Claus suit.