NORTH AUGUSTA --- Drive down East Avenue around any major holiday and you're sure to notice Frances Peck's house.

Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Independence Day, you name it. If it's on the calendar, Ms. Peck has a decoration for it -- 15 bunnies in the yard for Easter, 12 life-size Uncle Sam dolls sitting around the house for the Fourth of July and 10 Christmas trees for Christmas.

Though it sounds like a lot, Ms. Peck, said it's become her hobby.

"I'm not going to stop as long as I can do it," she said. "The doctor says it's what keeps me going."

The house usually gets decorated on the inside first, then Ms. Peck tackles the front yard. It takes about two weeks to get everything the way she wants it.

"I don't think that's too bad," Ms. Peck said. "I'm 75 years old."

It all started with Christmas back in Circleville, Ohio, in 1967. Ms. Peck said she had always loved to decorate and got the idea to expand her holiday ornamentation when she moved to South Carolina and saw that nobody really decorated for the Fourth of July like they did in Ohio.

The neighborhood has changed through the years, but neighbors have always loved the nightly displays that light the street, especially during Christmas and Halloween.

For years, the house served as a kind of night light for the 300 block of East Avenue until the city installed a street light just down the way a couple of years ago.

For the Fourth of July, several statues of Uncle Sam light the way up the sidewalk while a giant inflatable American flag serves as an entrance sign to the driveway.

Inside the house, every room is adorned in red, white and blue. The candlestick holders on the dining room table are little Uncle Sams, and when you emerge from the bathroom a life-size Uncle Sam doll is waiting to greet you.

Ms. Peck said her setup has attracted many interesting visitors over the years. She always tries to keep a candy dish handy for when children stop by.

"Last year we had 75 trick-or-treaters, a lot of them coming from Georgia to see," Ms. Peck said.

All those bells and whistles don't come cheap. Ms Peck said she's spent around $2,000 for this year's decorations. She keeps all the lights on a timer, from 8 to 11 p.m., to keep the power bill under control.

Bad weather and vandals are always her greatest threats.

Last Halloween, several inflatable pumpkins in her front yard were ripped apart during the night, causing the outdoor wiring to short out. It cost more than $1,000 to repair.

Some of her collections, most noticeably her turkeys, have grown so large that they stay out year-round because boxing them up became a hassle.

"Everybody says they haven't seen nothing like this before," Ms. Peck said of her Fourth of July spread.

The house will keep a summer theme until fall arrives, then it will be time to start the transformation for Halloween.

"It gives me something to get up and look forward to do," Ms. Peck said. "You can't clean house all the time."

Reach Nick Needham at (706) 724-0851 or nicholas.needham@augustachronicle.com.