The first time Greg Fritts decorated his Saline home for the holidays, he painstakingly wound strings of lights around the 25-foot flagpole in his front yard.

The next year, in 2006, he got creative. Using PVC pipe, Fritts built a 30-foot candy cane, which he decorated on the ground and then slipped over the flagpole.

Courtesy of Rebecca and Gary Fritts

That candy cane brings people from miles away to see the Fritts' Christmas display, which won our 2009 Deck the House holiday decorating contest.

"You can see the candy cane from 3 to 4 miles away from the house, if you look in the right direction," Fritts said. "There's a lot of people who come down the road, pull in our driveway and turn around and go back. And last night a guy from Pennsylvania stopped and asked how I made it, because he wanted to do one back home."

Fritts said he puts up the display — which also includes a rooftop Santa, 40 two-foot candy canes, and lots of lights on the house, bushes and trees — because he enjoys coming home to the lights, and because the neighbor kids get a kick out of it.

"The first year that I put Santa Claus up on the antenna pole, one of the neighbor kids raised a big commotion in his house," Fritts said. "Then they had to come down and see it. It definitely made his day."

The display usually goes up right after Thanksgiving — and comes down right after New Year's Day. It consumes too much power to extend the display into January. Fritts' wife, Rebecca, estimates the display adds about $200 to their electrical bill for December.

If you'd like to check out the display in person, it'll be up through Saturday at 8222 Parker Road in Saline.

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Go to the contest page to see all of the houses entered in the contest.

Jen Eyer is on the Community Team at AnnArbor.com. She oversees the Parenting and Home & Garden sections, and writes feature stories, blog posts and opinion pieces. She can be reached at 734-623-2577 or jeneyer@annarbor.com.