Sean Maiolo and Samantha Witt brought the holiday spirit to their front yard on Glenross Boulevard in Oregon.

It features colorful displays of twinkling lights, festive garlands with red velvet bows and sprigs of holly, wrapped presents, pine cones, candy canes bordering the sidewalk, and other decorations to create a magical winter wonderland.

Santa Claus is on the front rooftop overlooking the merry group of toy soldiers, reindeer, elves, ostrich, kangaroo, fish, Frosty the Snowman, a pink pig with wings, and a cat on a tree branch festooned with garland and ornaments near the sidewalk next to an attached Christmas wreath adorned with a red ribbon. Nearly all are decked in costumes — like Santa hats and scarves in classic red and green hues.

Small, medium, and shaggy faux dogs bundled in scarves and Santa hats look out over the sidewalk radiating a warm Christmas cheer.

Welcome to the holidays.

“It’s a lot of decorations,” Mr. Maiolo said. “My wife came up with the theme ‘The Enchanted Forest.’”

The yard is divided into sections, he said.

“There’s the farm with decorative chickens, cows, and pigs all drenched in lights. Then there’s the pet land, which has dogs and cats. We also have two twinkling ponds we set up in blue and white lights featuring a Christmas shark, polar bears, alligator, octopus, penguins, and Christmas crabs,” he said.

Two archways strewn with lights — one over the driveway and one that leads up to the house — were made by Ms. Witt, he said.

And candy canes light up the pathway along the sidewalks.

New this year is a fantasy toy land area between the driveway and front door that features lighted trains, dinosaurs, a unicorn, and nutcracker.

It took about a month to put everything together, he said.

“We started the first week in November. We would work on it on the weekends. My wife got home earlier than I did and would work on it. We kept adding to it until the start of December,” he said.

The glowing display won first place in Oregon’s annual Winter Wonder Lights.

Mr. Maiolo said he was thrilled to get the top prize after entering the contest in 2022 and 2023 with no success.

“I was ecstatic. We always try to compete every year since we moved here in 2021,” Mr. Maiolo said.

Top prize is a $400 gift card. They also received a $100 gift card after winning second place for the Winter Wonder Tree contest for best decorated Christmas tree inside the house.

Oregon police patrolling the streets vote on the winners of the Winter Wonder Lights, while the fire department votes on the winners of the Winter Wonder Tree.

The contest was the brainchild of Councilman Kathleen Pollauf, who wanted to add more holiday cheer than the meager lighting of a small Christmas tree at the front of the municipal building.

“Oregon didn’t do much for Christmas. So I wanted to push this idea of doing a competition with Christmas decorations, but with our businesses. I got with the Chamber of Commerce, but the businesses weren’t getting into it. So I decided to get residents to participate in the contest,” she said.

She credits Hank Fox, program coordinator with the parks and recreation department, for getting the ball rolling organizing the contest.

“We needed the department to field all the calls to register for the contest. I got together with Hank to come up with a plan to reach out to the citizens. It was all about marketing. He had contacted businesses to contribute funds. So Hank ran with it. It really grew from there,” she said.

Mr. Fox returned the compliment and said Ms. Pollauf came up with the idea.

“It’s a collective effort. Kathy actually presented the idea to us, gave us the reins, and told us to go with it. The fact we have councilmembers to trust us to implement programs is the most important part of the process,” Mr. Fox said.

Registration for the event has averaged between 20 and 25 participants each year, Mr. Fox said.

The contest has exceeded Ms. Pollauf’s expectations.

“The main focus was to really get into the Christmas spirit in the city. It helps get the businesses involved as well because many sponsor the contest. It costs the city nothing to do it,” she said.

One of Mr. Maiolo and Ms. Witt’s neighbors, Gerry Cascadden, said the display is a joy to see.

“There are cars that will stop and park in front of the house to look at the decorations,” Mr. Cascadden said. “Then they move on. We never have problems like blocked streets or traffic jams.”

He felt a little embarrassed by the decorations, he added, because he rarely puts light displays on his own house.

“I feel we should put up a sign on our front lawn with an arrow pointing to their house with the word ‘ditto,’” he said laughing.

This year, inspired by his neighbor’s stunning outdoor Christmas decorations, Mr. Cascadden put some strings of twinkling lights on the front of his house to get into the holiday spirit.

“The neighbors look like a bunch of losers compared to them,” he laughed. “I felt forced to put up my own lights.”

First Published December 24, 2024, 4:35 p.m.