Christmas Lottery in Spain is not just a lottery. It is a national habit, a collective superstition, a televised ritual, and—once a year—a perfectly respectable excuse for adults to stare at the television at nine in the morning while children sing numbers at them.
If you’ve spent any time in Spain in December, you will already have seen the clues. Little handwritten signs taped to bar walls. Numbers stuck behind tills. Cafés proudly announcing “Tenemos este número” as if it were a badge of honour. None of it is decorative, and none of it is accidental.
This is El Gordo. And once you understand how the Christmas Lottery in Spain actually works, all those scraps of paper suddenly make perfect sense.
What exactly is the Christmas Lottery in Spain?
Officially, it’s called El Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad, organised by Loterías y Apuestas del Estado and drawn every year on 22 December. It has been running since 1812, which makes it older than most modern countries and far more resilient than most political systems.
Unlike many lotteries, the Christmas Lottery in Spain is not designed to turn one person into a multimillionaire overnight. Instead, it spreads an enormous prize fund across thousands of winning numbers, ensuring that whole communities win together.
The headline prize is known as El Gordo—literally “The Fat One”—but focusing only on that misses the point. The real magic is not how much money is won, but how widely it is shared.
Tickets, décimos and why nobody buys “just one”
This is where newcomers often get lost, so let’s clear it up calmly.
The lottery uses five-digit numbers, from 00000 to 99999. Each number is printed many times in what are called series.
Almost nobody buys a full ticket. Instead, you buy a décimo, which is one-tenth of a ticket.
- A décimo costs €20
- All prizes are quoted per décimo
- If your number wins, everyone holding that number wins the same prize
Sharing is built into the system. From the very start, the Christmas Lottery in Spain assumes that people will split numbers, share risk, and celebrate together.
Why the Christmas Lottery in Spain ends up on bar walls
This is the bit that confuses almost everyone at first.
Those handwritten numbers you see behind the bar are not decorations and they are not advertisements. They are shared lottery numbers.
Here’s how it works.
A bar, café, shop, office or club buys one or more lottery numbers. Instead of keeping them, they sell small shares, known as participaciones, to customers. You might pay €2, €5 or €10 and receive a printed or handwritten receipt confirming your share.
That sign behind the bar saying “Jugamos el 74231” means:
“If this wins, we all win.”
It’s social, it’s communal, and it’s very Spanish. In fact, winning the Christmas Lottery in Spain entirely on your own would feel faintly antisocial.
The psychology behind it (and why logic isn’t invited)
In many countries, lotteries are about individual fantasy:
What would I do if I won?
In Spain, the Christmas Lottery is about collective imagination:
What if we all won?
That’s why:
- entire villages celebrate together
- bars shut early because nobody is fit to work
- television crews descend on small towns
- Cava appears at nine in the morning
Nobody asks who bought how many shares. Nobody checks receipts. The idea is not precision—it’s participation.
How the draw works (and why it lasts all morning)
The draw takes place on 22 December, starting at 9am, and is broadcast live on Spanish television. It usually lasts around four hours.
There are:
- no adverts
- no dramatic music
- no celebrity presenters
Instead, there are big wire drums, wooden balls, and children singing numbers in a way that sounds faintly surreal until you realise that everyone in the room has stopped breathing.
The school and the children who sing the numbers
The numbers are sung by pupils from the Colegio de San Ildefonso in Madrid, a tradition that dates back centuries and used to be an orphanage.
Two children sing each prize:
- one sings the number
- the other sings the amount
- they repeat it until it is confirmed
The tone is unmistakable and instantly recognisable. For many people, hearing those voices is the moment Christmas actually begins. In bars and homes across the country, conversations stop mid-sentence while someone frantically checks their phone.
This ritual is inseparable from the Christmas Lottery in Spain. Change it, and you would have a national uprising.
How the prizes actually work (without needing a calculator)
There are thousands of prizes, but these are the headline figures per décimo (the smallest denomination):
- El Gordo: €400,000
- Second prize: €125,000
- Third prize: €50,000
- Two fourth prizes: €20,000
- Eight fifth prizes: €6,000
Then come the smaller but numerous prizes:
- numbers close to the big winners
- matching final digits
- reintegros (money back)
Most people don’t expect to win big. Many people win something. Even getting your €20 back is treated like a small personal triumph.
To give this some real-world context, last year we did win €120. Nothing dramatic, but enough to cover a good meal, a few drinks, and the quiet satisfaction of feeling briefly vindicated for taking part.
Additionally, a lottery office in San Juan Playa (Alicante) sold 20 series of the third prize in 2025 amounting to 10 million Euros.
Tax: the dull bit that nobody argues about
Any winnings over €40,000 per décimo are taxed at 20%. Unlike the lottery in the UK where you pdon’tay tax on the lottery winnings.
This is deducted automatically before you receive anything, which is probably why there’s so little fuss about it. If you’ve shared a number, the tax is split proportionally.
The Christmas Lottery in Spain has been around long enough that everyone accepts the rules without complaint.
Who can take part in the Christmas Lottery in Spain?
Almost anyone.
You do not need to be Spanish.
You do not need residency.
You do not need a Spanish bank account to buy a décimo.
You can:
- buy from official lottery offices
- buy shares from bars, schools, clubs and gyms
- buy online from authorised sellers (lottery offices)
Tourists buy tickets. Expats buy tickets. People who insist they “never gamble” mysteriously end up with a décimo in their wallet by mid-December.
What happens when a bar or town wins?
This is the scenario everyone secretly imagines.
If a bar’s number wins big:
- the bar becomes famous overnight
- national TV turns up within hours
- the owner insists they “never expected it”
- cava appears before breakfast
- nobody works properly for days
Even people who didn’t buy a share will say, with absolute confidence:
“We were going to buy that one.”
And nobody will contradict them.
Why the Christmas Lottery in Spain still matters
In a world of personalised feeds and individual algorithms, the Christmas Lottery in Spain remains one of the few genuinely shared national moments left.
Rich or poor, young or old, sceptic or believer—everyone knows the songs, the numbers, the rituals. For one morning, the country pauses together.
It’s not really about getting rich.
It’s about hoping together, just briefly, before Christmas properly begins.
And that is why those bits of paper behind the bar matter far more than they look.
