On the 22nd of December, a special Spanish Christmas lottery, El Gordo takes place in Spain. It is the biggest and most popular draw of the year with prizes of up to 400.000 euros.
El Gordo. The Spanish Christmas Lottery
El Gordo, the biggest of the Spanish Christmas lottery prizes
There are 13 special lucky numbers but the biggest one is “El Gordo” (the fat one). You will win 400.000 € for one ticket with this number.
There are also over 1500 smaller prizes that will get you 250 euros per ticket.
Spanish Christmas Lottery
Christmas in Spain starts on the day this lottery happens, typically with all the tickets spread out on the coffee table and with everyone listening carefully to the TV.
By lunch time, and after checking in with all the friends and family members to find out if anyone has gotten lucky.
News channels will be full of stories of the happy winners and champagne celebrations in all the places the winning numbers have been sold.
Meanwhile the rest of the country will just be claiming: “Oh well, at least we have our health!”
Where to watch El Gordo Spanish Christmas Lottery
In the draw, kids from San Ildefonso, a boarding school for orphan children sing the winning numbers. When a big prize comes up they sing even louder.
People from all over Spain will go to the Royal Theatre in Madrid to be in the audience, sometimes in the most bizarre costumes.
You can watch the draw in TVE 1, a public TV channel. It starts at 9 am.
Where do people buy tickets?
While there are official shops, Administraciones de Loteria, you can buy the Christmas lottery everywhere, as businesses, shops and bars sell the same number year after year.
This gets tricky as no one wants to be left behind and you will end up purchasing one number shared with your family, another one with colleagues, one with friends, one from your local butcher, bar, restaurant… and so on.
With every ticket costing 20€, playing the Christmas lottery can get very expensive.
The official Spanish Chritsmas lottery website
The official website is this one. You can purchase tickets in the web (Sorteo extraordinario de Navidad) and also check the winning numbers.
- Check out these 5 Fun Facts about Christmas in Spain>
Save money on your trip to Spain for the El Gordo Spanish Christmas Lottery!
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