The Sacca family won the Clayton News-Star's Christmas decoration photo contest.

A family affair, they add something to their front lawn menagerie and lit-up house every year.

When the Sacca family was getting ready to move to Clayton from Massachusetts five years ago, they filled extra bins with discounted Christmas decorations during the post-holiday discounts.

They used to limit decorations to the house itself, but their new house in the Riverwood neighborhood features a large front lawn, perfect for spacing out all kinds of lit-up winter animals, stacks of presents and Christmas trees.

"It gets bigger every year, because after Christmas we always add something new," said Lisa Federico Sacca. But Sacca doesn't want to take all the credit, she says. It's really her two children, 7-year-old Christopher and 12-year-old Bryanna, along with her husband Rich Sacca, who do all the work.

"We do it for our children," Sacca said. "Basically we go over with extra color and all of that because, I would like it simpler, but once you have kids you want it as extravagant as you can."

This year, Christopher decided that he wanted blue lights on the house, so half the house is lit up in blue, as is the front door. Bryanna had her heart set on white icicle lights over the garage windows.

"I wanted white all over my house and color out on the front lawn, but I let them do it, and my son picked what he likes," Sacca said. But the stand-out feature - an ice-skating snowman - was her idea.

Only one of two houses on a private cul-de-sac, Sacca doesn't think the house is too bright for her neighbors. She did, however, find out that a group was photographing the house as part of a scavenger hut for the brightest Christmas decorations, and her neighbor took a photo and sent it to family up north explaining that, 'this is how the south decorates.'

Sacca said their electric bill goes up by about $300 between the weekend after Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, but it all amounts to just another present for the kids.

And as loud as their decorations are, the Sacca family is spending a quiet Christmas at home.

By the time Rich Sacca reads this story, he'll already know about his surprise deep fryer that they'll use to fry the turkey for Christmas dinner.

"My mom comes over, the kids will hang around at home, open presents," Sacca said. "Our family's all up north and we're here, but we just stay home and enjoy Christmas with the family."

As for next year, more colors and maybe an ice-skating polar bear are waiting to join the scene on the Sacca's front lawn.

information provided by The Clayton News-Star