As early as October Spaniards can start buying into the christmas lottery, or Loteria Navidad. Each decima, or lottery number, cost a whopping 20 euros. If you want to pay less, you can buy a participacion. This means that if you buy a participacion of a decima, you only get a fraction of the prize if that decima wins. Your share, of course, depends on how many participaciones were sold.
The beauty of Loteria Navidad is that there isn't only one winner. Of course, only one wins El Gordo, or the fat prize, which is the biggest prize of all. But many others can win smaller, consolation prizes with other number combinations within their decimas. So the more varied tickets you buy, the more chances you have of winning something.
People go crazy for Loteria Navidad. So much so that people will line up for hours outside Lottery stands to buy a decima...yes, here there are places that are specifically just for selling lotto tickets. People buy them where ever they think they feel lucky. In Madrid, Doña Manolita's lotto store is famous for having sold many El Gordo winning tickets. In Catalunya, one town is famous for being the most lucky and having sold the most amount of winners in history. Many will flock to this town just to get a decima or two...or ten.
Others may prefer to buy them at local bars or family shops that sell them. Anyone can sell them! Francisco and his family for example bought a set of decimas to sell at the bar. This is not to make profit though. It's a marketing strategy, in case the winning ticket was bought at the bar. Francisco simply called the nearest Lotto agency, asked for a specific series (the series started with the date of the bar's opening day and consists of about 150 decimas), and displayed them at the bar.
When I visited Madrid in October, Francisco's mom had asked me to get a couple and I went to the famous Doña Manolita. I never thought I'd find myself standing in a long line waiting to buy a 20 euro lotto ticket!
It is also advised that you buy one from all over the country to increase your chances even more. Hence why Aurora asked me to get her some in Madrid. This also makes Loteria Navidad a great Christmas gift. Friends or relatives from other parts of the country will usually buy decimas for you. Nothing says "I appreciate you" more than a decima. I decided to buy the ones from Madrid as a present to Francisco's mom. She of course refused to take them so she paid me for one and gave me one from the bar. It was my first Spanish Christmas lottery ever. I was excited of the prospect of winning millions of euros (multiplied in dollars!) and I was picturing myself debt free and travelling the world.
...I think you can guess how well my decima did.
On December 22nd, the winning numbers are drawn live on TV and everyone watches it. The numbers and prizes are sung out by children from Colegio San Ildefonso. Some might find it obnoxious, but I think Illinois Lottery's Linda Kollmeyer is far more annoying. Check it out.
A decima from 2007
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