While the fest of the Immaculate Conception is the traditional religious start to Christmas, most people associate the Spanish Christmas lottery 'El Gordo' (the fat one) as the start of the Christmas holidays in Spain.

The lottery is huge and the entire country sits and waits as thousands of winning numbers are sung out by school children to the nation on television and radio. With so many winners, the lottery itslelf takes several hours.

Everybody buys a ticket, with the average spend per head at least 50€. A single ticket is over 100€ and is subdivided into several smaller parts, meaning that often the 'El Gordo' top prize goes to many people. Often an entire village or neighborhood which has the luck to be the place where the Gordo (the first prize) was sold, is the star of the day.

Results for El Gordo and other Spanish lottery results you can visit the lottery website here.