Lots of police on the streets two weekends ago, lots of thugs on the streets this weekend.

Surely enough is enough, it's time for the people of Ballarat to stand up to this mindless vandalism and let these idiots know we have had enough of their behaviour. Let's band together and get this tree replaced, get an appeal going Ballarat Courier and get some community and business pride back into our town. The council have made a great effort this year in getting our streets looking more cheerful for the Christmas period and the citizens need to let them know we support them, otherwise why not just leave our town look like "scrooge' town and don't put any decorations out at all, and I don't think anyone really wants that.

I'm actually glad that these criminals are now starting to cost the council a bit of money then we might see some tougher action in the courts when the politicians start getting hit by these criminals.

Our council didn't pay for this tree, the residents of Ballarat did. I am all for decorations but that's a lot of money for a tree. Not in favour of a whip round to buy another one only to have that destroyed as well. Council could have decorated one of the many real trees along that strip which would have been cheaper, less tempting to set fire to and would be much less flammable.

We spend $60,000 on an artificial tree when there are hundreds of pine trees growing as weeds in the forest and hundreds of people starving over Christmas. Oh dear.

A security guard sitting in a car less than 3m away guarding this tree and straw filled reindeers and you have this? Next year the council should place all items on shop veranda roofs out of reach, and use their overpaid brains.

This is why dressing up the town for Christmas does not work.

Come on, get tough with these waste of space bogans. Jail them no questions asked. Do everyone a favour - no more suspended sentences and corrections orders.

Wow $60,000 damage caused to a Christmas tree and we don't have one because we can't afford it. My teenager came up with a great solution though. Our decorations now hang happily on my 1m tall happy plant so it's a happy Christmas tree. But I can't say much for the mall's Christmas tree. What a big joke.

This is disgusting. I really don't know what to say. I am so disappointed in the behaviours of certain groups of people in Ballarat of late. We can not even enjoy a Christmas tree without some idiot ruining it. It wasn't for you, it was for everyone, including the many Ballarat children to enjoy. When is this anti-social behaviour going to stop?