The 22nd of December is the day that the Spanish Christmas Lottery numbers are slected. It has been organised since 1812, and is a very popular thing.

The largest of the draws is 'El Gordo' and is worth 4 million euros for the first prize, 250,000 for second .....

Pupils of the San Ildefonso school draw the numbers live on television and radio (and corresponding prizes), delivering the results in song to the public. It is quite a spectacle. As the drawing goes on, a single ball is extracted from each of the revolving spheres at the same time. One child sings the winning number, the other child sings the corresponding prize. This is repeated until all the prize-balls are connected to a number. Due to the sheer number of prizes, this procedure takes several hours. The children work in about eight to nine shifts, equal to the number of frames of numbers to be drawn