Kamloops’s Whoville on lockdown after recent provincial health orders

Kamloops's Whoville is set-up and ready for guests, but the most recent provincial health orders have put everything on hold.

For the past two years, locals Sue and Randy Adams have decorated their backyard in the likeness of Dr. Seuss's Whoville, the fictional town in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

"It started with a tree house that our son built for our granddaughter, and it has gone from there to, 'let’s do something with this,'" Sue said. "Everything is handmade and recycled, I have done the drawing and painting and my husband has cut things out for me."

Guests would donate a children's book to tour Whoville, and enjoy hot chocolate by the fire pit while watching the original Grinch movie. Randy and Sue dress as the Mayor of Whoville and his wife, and their son makes an appearance as the Grinch.

As the summer progressed, they came up with new ways they could safely open for the season amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"We put some systems in place that we thought were going to work," she said. "Then we had to cancel the first weekend."

The provincial health orders that rolled in Nov. 19 banned socializing outside immediate household members, and will be in effect until midnight Dec. 7, if not longer.

READ MORE: BREAKING: New sweeping health orders and restrictions for B.C. starting today

"We will continue to decorate, it will be ready to go, but we just don’t know in what capacity we can do this," she said. "There’s a way to get through everything, it’s just figuring out how we can do that safely."

Whether that could take the form of scheduled appointments of limited numbers, or a Facebook livestream with the Grinch, will depend on what orders will be in place following Dec. 8.

The Adams are disappointed, but still hopeful.

"It was something we were trying so hard to do this year because we thought it was so important for the families to have something fun," she said. "But we’ll find a creative way at some point."

They will continue to collect donations of new or gently used children books to support Literacy in Kamloops.

You can drop off donations to the Adams's home at 1864 Dickenson Road starting Dec. 1.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Brie Welton or call (250) 819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.