LEXINGTON, S.C. -- Most people may not associate the holiday season with dinosaurs, but that’s the vibe at the Price household.

The yard of the house on Augusta Road/Highway 1 just outside Lexington is crawling with dinos of various sizes. The creatures made out of insulation foam board frolic amid the twinkle of the Christmas lights on the side of the highway.

“It’s become a bit of a landmark,” said Christopher Price, the dinosaurs’ creator.

The self-employed handyman made his first dinosaur a couple years ago for his two sons, now 8 and 6 years old. The originals went up for Halloween in 2022, and have returned every year since then with new additions. The total collection now includes 11 dinosaurs, Price said.

The giant lizards are otherwise packed away for most of the year, except for the largest piece, a tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed “Lex,” which has become a permanent feature of the Price yard.

But Price took his time packing up this year, and eventually asked his family if he should leave them up through Christmas. His wife was cool to the idea, but the boys were excited to keep them around. “Sorry, you’ve been outvoted,” he said he told his wife.

Each dinosaur represents a specific species, from a pterodactyl to a velociraptor. But the most detailed is actually his first attempt, an ankylosaurus or “armored dinosaur” with distinct individual scales, a tail club and spikes grafted into the foam.

From the front, Price’s dinosaurs look textured and ferocious, illuminated at night so they stay clearly visible to passing cars on the highway. But walk around back and it becomes clear they’re flat boards propped up with just enough give that they will sway in the wind without snapping at the legs.

Price hadn’t taken on such a mammoth construction project as the dinosaurs before, until he made his son a set of megalodon shark teeth wide enough to swallow a little boy. Now he has a spinosaurus that stretches 24 feet long and 11 feet tall. That one might be dwarfed by his next planned addition, a brontosaurus that will tower 24 feet over the family yard.

The display takes its inspiration from the movie “Jurassic Park,” including a version of the iconic Jeep from the movie, which is crossing over a stream of blue Christmas lights in Price’s yard. He even built a triceratops laying on its side to replicate the sick dinosaur in the movie.

“I still get goosebumps watching that,” Price said.

This year, Price painted Lex a bright pink as part of a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society for breast cancer research and treatment. The T. rex is inscribed with the names of some 80 people who are or have battled cancer. The society’s fall campaign, including pink Lex, ended up raising $1,500, Price said.

“I had a lot of fun with that, and it’s for a good cause,” Price said. “I’ll probably do that for years to come.”

Over the years, Price’s dinosaur display has attracted a lot of attention, especially since his house sits on a busy stretch of highway heading into and out of Lexington. This past Halloween — when the dinosaurs were paired with skeletons rather than Christmas lights — he estimates he had 300 trick-or-treaters stop by the house, all of them wanting to get their picture taken with the dinosaur.

“I’ve got other ideas, but I can’t get away from dinosaurs,” he said. “That’s kind of what’s given me my notoriety.”

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