The festive season isn't always jolly for those with homes on the fringe of a Melbourne shopping centre.
And for residents who live near the ever-expanding Chadstone, just leaving their homes around Christmas can be a nightmare.
"It's just not a pleasant experience," said Steve Clegg, who lives on a street behind the busy shopping centre.
"The pressure on the surrounding roads is just absolutely unrelenting. And if we get any more car traffic going around this place, I think the shopping centre should give us smog masks."
Venturing onto nearby Chadstone Road is just not an option for Mr Clegg.
"The last thing you would do is stick your car out from Chadstone Road. So we have to use little-known shortcuts to try and circumnavigate the local areas," he said.
"Our driveway is constantly full of friends' cars, because no one wants to drive to Chaddy to park; our streets are full of cars trawling up and down for people to find space.
"It's permit parking only and there are fines for parking on our street ... but people get desperate and think, 'Oh, we can get away with this.'"
A redevelopment, which will make Chadstone the largest shopping centre in Australia, with a hotel and 600 retailers across more than 200,000 square metres, is under way.
The first stage is complete and has two extended car parking areas with 800 additional spaces – bringing the number of parking spaces at Chadstone to 10,000. A centralised bus exchange and taxi rank have also been created.
But Mr Clegg said the development had created a bigger headache for locals.
"I think the redevelopment has only exacerbated the situation;it's brought more people to Chadstone," he said.
"In the past I've been involved with discussions with management at Chadstone about what they can do to lessen the impacts of the facility on the local community.
"And their view seems to be that we should be really happy that people from outlying areas want to come to Chaddy to shop. It beggars belief that we'd think that."
Councils are set to issue thousands in parking fines this festive season.
Between December 1 and 24 last year, Manningham City Council made almost $60,000 from 640 fines issued around Westfield Doncaster shopping centre.
On Boxing Day the council issued 317 fines, amounting to $28,860 in one day.
December 26 last year was also a huge earner for the City of Stonnington. Parking inspectors issued 187 parking infringements on the sales day, netting $17,917.
It will be the same this year. City of Stonnington chief executive Warren Roberts said parking inspectors would be out in force to monitor Chadstone shoppers parking illegally on residential streets.
He said the most troublesome streets around the shopping centre were Warrigal Road, Dandenong Road and Chadstone Road.
As retail hours widen for Christmas shopping sprees over the next fortnight, and the number of available parking spaces narrows, incidents of car-park rage increase.
December is the most common month for car-park crashes, according to RACV figures.
Last December there was a 27 per cent rise in insurance claims resulting from collisions in car parks.
The data also revealed almost one-quarter of the collisions involved stationary objects such as poles, pylons and shopping trolleys, and that 44 per cent happened while reversing.
"Motorists manoeuvring into car-parking spaces must remember that they are driving in very confined and, at this time of year, usually very busy areas," RACV general manager motor insurance Mark Geraghty said.
"The lead-up to Christmas can create stress and they should stay calm and be courteous to other drivers."
There were almost 9000 car park collisions in Victoria last financial year, at an average cost of $2,645.
Melbourne City recorded the worst figures for undercover car park collisions, with one incident per 260 residents between 2015/16.
Car park collision hotspots, 2015-16:
- Melbourne City 531
- Monash 492
- Whitehorse 402
- Greater Geelong 341
- Boroondara 335
- Knox 335
- Casey 288
- Manningham 284
*Figures based on key word search of RACV claims database