Christmas Lottery 2022: 2.5 billion euros in prizes this year, already on sale!

December is approaching, and with it also comes the most important Spanish lottery draw: the Extraordinary Christmas Draw, also known as the Christmas Draw, which will be held on Thursday, December 22nd from 9:00 am (Madrid time) and will distribute a total of 2.5 billion euros in accumulated prizes, a historic figure to date!

This is the most awaited draw during the year by all Spaniards, not only because of the incredible amount of its prizes, but also because it is already a national tradition and spectacle: during the approximately 3 hours that the draw lasts, almost all households are attentive to the transmission of the event and to listen to the children of San Idelfonso singing the winning numbers of the 5 main prizes and the thousands of secondary prizes.

The good news is that it is possible to participate online by buying tickets for the Christmas lottery from anywhere in the world, so Spaniards outside Spain, or anyone who wants to participate, has the possibility to play by buying their tickets online, which are already on sale.

What is the Christmas Lottery?

The Christmas Lottery, as it is popularly known in Spain, is the Extraordinary Draw of the National Lottery. Held for the first time in 1812, since 1992 it is held every year on December 22nd.

The peculiarity of this draw is that it distributes thousands of prizes, which in total amount to 2,500 million euros, with a first prize that reaches 4,000,000 euros.

Given the amount of prizes that are distributed, the draw begins at 9:00 am and lasts approximately 3 hours, being televised since 1957 for all households in the country. Since its origins, the people in charge of collecting the balls with the winning numbers and "singing" the results are the so-called Children of San Idelfonso, the name given to the students of the San Idelfonso School.

How to play the Christmas Lottery?

The Christmas lottery follows the same dynamics as the rest of the National Lottery draws. This lottery is played with a 5-digit number, which is known as " tenth". This 5-digit number can range from 00000 to 99999. Therefore, on the day of the draw, 5 balls are selected for each prize, each of which has a number from 0 to 9. The combination of these 5 numbers creates the tenth winner of each of the prizes.

Therefore, in order to play, each person must buy their 5-digit tenth, from 00000 to 99999.

Why is the bet called a tenth? Because in truth, each ticket formed by the combination of the 5 numbers is divided into 10 parts, called tenths: each bet is the tenth part of a ticket.

This means that, at the moment of buying his bet, the player can choose whether to buy from 1 to 10 tenths: if he buys all 10 tenths, he will buy the whole ticket, while, if he buys only 1 tenth, he will buy a tenth part of it.

What is the difference between buying 1 tenth or 10 tenths of the ticket? Well, in case the number wins any of the prizes, if you have all 10 tenths, you will get the full prize, while if you have only 1 tenth, you will get only one tenth of the prize.

What are the prizes of the Christmas Lottery?

This year, the Christmas Lottery distributes in total about 2,520 million euros in prizes, since the number of series has been increased with respect to last year. The main prize, which is known as the Christmas Gordo, has a value of 4,000,000 euros (which means about 400,000 euros per tenth).

But the main attraction of the Christmas Lottery, is that it is one of the lotteries that distributes more prizes, so the odds of winning at least one are quite high compared to other lotteries: buying a lottery ticket, there is a 5.3% chance of winning one of the prizes, and a 9.9% chance of winning at least the reintegro, which allows you to recover the value of your ticket.

In total, there are 5 first prizes, in addition to the Pedrea, the approximations and the reintegros.

What are the 5 prizes of the Christmas Lottery?

• First prize (El Gordo): 4.000.000 euros (400.000 euros per tenth)
• Second prize: 1.250.000 euros (125.000 euros per tenth)
• Third prize: 500.000 euros (50.000 euros per tenth)
• Fourth prizes (2 prizes): 200.000 euros (20.000 euros per tenth)
• Fifth prizes (8 prizes): 60,000 euros (6,000 euros per tenth prize).

What is the Pedrea of the Christmas Lottery?

The Pedrea brings together all the smaller prizes of the Christmas Lottery, a total of 1,794 prizes of 1,000 euros each. Throughout the draw, the children of San Idelfonso sing their traditional "one thousand euros!" when one of the numbers drawn randomly corresponds to a Pedrea prize.

What are the approximations of the Christmas Lottery?

Approximations are prizes awarded to those numbers that "approximate" the winning numbers of the first prizes. There are several types of approximations:

• First, second and third prize approximations: these are the numbers immediately preceding and following the winning numbers of these prizes. For example, if the Christmas Gordo is awarded with the number 25890, the approximations would be the numbers 25889 and 25891.
• Approximations of hundreds: In this case, all the tenths that begin with the same 3 digits as the winning numbers are awarded, up to the Fourth prizes. Returning to the example, if the winning number is 25890, all the tenths that begin with 258, receive prizes per hundred.

What is the Christmas Lottery Reintegro?

The Reintegro is a prize that allows to recover the value of the bet. All the lottery tickets whose last number coincides with the winning number las number, will be awarded with the Reintegro.

Christmas Lottery 2022 Prizes

In the following table, you can check all the prizes that will be drawn in this year's Christmas Lottery: