A family in LaGrangeville that currently holds the Guinness World Record for Christmas lights beat their own record this year.

The Gay family won in 2014 with more than 601,000 lights. That's 101,000 fewer than they have this year.

Grace Gay says her three children picked colleges close to home so they could come and help with the extensive setup.

The display began with just 600 lights in 1995, the year the family’s first child was born. Ever since then, it has been growing and evolving.

In addition to providing holiday cheer, the family also says the display has raised an over $600,000 in donations for local charities over the years.

They collect each weekend for dozens of nonprofits, such as the Children's Home of Poughkeepsie.

“This is incredible. The lights are beautiful the people coming are so excited to support a good cause It's really beautiful to see, especially this time of year,” said Courtney Doyle, of the Children's Home of Poughkeepsie.

"It's really a reflection of the family and it brings us together as a family in terms of making it bigger, I don't think we've really thought about making it bigger, it's more what creative ideas we can come up with,” said Tim Gay. “The 19 marriage proposals we've had here over the years. That is just such an exciting thing to witness. They have children now. It's nice to know we're part of their lives or part of them coming together,” he said.