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Spanish Christmas Lottery 22nd December

An El Gordo Spanish Christmas Lottery ticket from 2009

On 22nd December each year, the Spanish Christmas Lottery, the biggest lottery in the world and an eagerly-awaited kick-start to Christmas, is drawn. In 2017 there were 2,380 million euros in the El Gordo (The Fat One) prize pot. In this video, Tom Bacon explains how the whole El Gordo lottery works.


How the numbers are picked

Every 22nd December from 9am in the morning forty children aged 8 to 14 years old from the school 'Colegio de San Ildefonso' in Segovia, which was formerly an orphanage, draw the winning numbers. The children are called 'los niños de San Ildefonso' and in pairs they draw the small wooden numbered balls out of the two big golden drums that contain all 100.000 numbers. One drum has the ticket numbers and the other has the prize amounts. The children come forward in pairs and draw and sing out a lottery ticket number from one drum, and then draw and sing out the prize amount to be awarded to that number from the other drum. This lottery ceremony that takes place at the Teatro Real de Madrid and takes just over three hours, is called 'el soniquete de los Niños de San Ildefonso.' It's very sweet and Christmas in Spain just wouldn't be the same without it.

Naturally because of the money involved it's very exciting viewing if you have a ticket watching the winning numbers as they are called out.

Tenerife in December 2018

The North Pole depicted in Tenerife

December begins with two National public holidays on Thu 6 December for Día de la Constitución Español a (Constitution Day) and Sat 8 December for Inmaculada Concepción (The Immaculate Conception). Many are bound to take the day off on Fri 7 too and take what's known as un puente (translates to bridge) or short break. Naturally, most of December's events are to do with Christmas.

It's customary to put up Christmas decorations on the weekend closest to 8 December, but the holiday period always kicks off proper with El Gordo (The Fat One), the Spanish Christmas Lottery, which is drawn on 22 December, with kids singing out the numbers drawn during a five-hour televised spectacular.

Christmas Day, Tue 25 December will be a Public holiday. For Canarians, this is often recovery day after a big family gathering on Christmas Eve.

Boxing Day isn't a tradition nor holiday in Spain or the Canaries.

There are no municipal public holidays in December.

On 28 December, beware of El Día de Los Santos Inocentes (Day of the Innocent Saints), the Spanish equivalent of April Fool's Day. 

And that, of course, brings us to the end of the year and New Year's Eve.

Tenerife Land of Eternal Christmas

Sunbathing SantaDesert Island ChristmasScuba Diving SantaTropical Santa
Santa's Having a Whale of a TimeSurfing SantaWaterski SantaCamel Rodeo Santa
With a wide range of products in each design, click the pics (above) to see the full selections.