After nearly 400 hours getting all of their lights up and running, it all comes down to Monday night.
"I'm super excited, this is so awesome. We're happy that everyone is going to be here tonight to watch," said Donna Wager, mother.
Donna Wagner is the proud mom. Her son, Dominic, is the master holiday decorator.
"it's a TV show in which they pick 20 families from around the nation with the best displays to compete for $50,000. There's five episodes, four families on an episode," said Dominic Kowalczyk.
But for this Tinley Park family, it's much more than a TV competition. It's family pride and holiday joy. They've been doing this since Dominic was 10.
"His birthday is in October, and he would get money for his birthday, and I'd have to take him to the Christmas store so he could decorate his room. He said to me one year, I think he was maybe 10, 'Let's put something outside,' and it just kept going and going," said Wager.
"When we started it was just one little plastic guy, and its just grown more and more. We made a lot of this stuff. This year everything goes to the music now, so it's kind of our new thing for this year," said Kowalczyk.
And this year's design takes about 100,000 lights, 200 figurines and over a mile of extension cords. His electric bill goes up about $1,600 dollars during the holiday season. We're not sure about the power bill, but family and friends sure help out decorating-- and everyone has a favorite.
"Favorite decoration has to be that 45-foot snowman up on the roof there. Nothing better than that, when you drive by you can see it from the highway," said Eric Kowalczyk, brother.
Win or lose, Dominic Kowalczyk and his family say they're just happy spreading some holiday cheer.
"I just enjoy doing it. Having friends over decorating having fun, seeing everyone enjoying it," said Dominic Kowalczyk.
While the Kowalcyzk family didn't take home the grand prize Monday night, they watched the episode with friends and kept the loss in perspective.
