We're all thinking of Christmas and the New Year to come when December rolls around – and what better time could there be to win a lottery jackpot?

But even if you didn't scoop a big prize you may still have been lucky enough to win a smaller one.  So if those tickets ended up being forgotten in the rush of the seasonal excitement, go and grab them now and check them off against all the numbers we are about to give you.  You might just be in for a nice surprise!

We'll start as usual with the main Lotto draw, so if you're ready let's see whether you have any winnings to claim.

The results for the Lotto draw in December

Machine	Date	Balls	Numbers	Jackpot	Jackpot Winner
Topaz	Wed 03 Dec	8	4, 12, 19, 21, 34, 44	£2.18m	Two
Amethyst	Sat 06 Dec	5	10, 12, 20, 37, 39, 48	£5.10m	None
Topaz	Wed 10 Dec	6	9, 11, 23, 27, 29, 33	£7.54m	One
Amethyst	Sat 13 Dec	7	2, 4, 16, 28, 37, 47	£4.56m	Two
Topaz	Wed 17 Dec	8	10, 15, 17, 26, 46, 49	£2.67m	One
Topaz	Sat 20 Dec	6	3, 9, 11, 23, 36, 44	£3.50m	Ten
Topaz	Wed 24 Dec	5	2, 10, 24, 31, 37, 47	£3.33m	One
Sapphire	Sat 27 Dec	7	7, 10, 24, 39, 40, 42	£3.43m	One
Sapphire	Wed 31 Dec	8	3, 11, 15, 33, 36, 45	£3.04m	Three

For the purposes of this chart the bonus ball numbers have not been included.

So how did things pan out overall then?  Well there was actually only one single draw in which we had no jackpot winners at all, which is why we had only one jackpot all month that was higher than the normal amount we are used to seeing.  And the highest number of jackpot winners was ten, which occurred on the 20th.  What a nice gift that would have been just before Christmas!

The biggest jackpot amount we saw all month was that rollover one on the 10th, which came out to £7.54 million.  The smallest was £2.18 million, which occurred on the very first draw of the month.  But how about the jackpot shares?  Well the largest one was for the biggest jackpot of the month which occurred on the 10th December, for £7,544,200.  The smallest was ten days later when we had those ten winners.  Each one bagged a nice £350,384.

So while you would no doubt have preferred to win the big prize on the 10th, even the smallest share was still well into six figures.

But which numbers made more than one appearance during the month?  Let's find out by taking a look at some of them now.  The numbers which popped up twice within the main balls were 4, 12, 44, 39, 9, 23, 33, 2, 47, 15, 3, 36 and 24.  The only numbers to pop out three times were 37 and 11, and just one number came up four times – number 10.  If you had a good mix of those then you would have had a much better chance of bagging some prizes throughout the month!

So which numbers didn't appear at all during December?  These are the ones you might want to keep an eye out for in the near future – 1, 5, 6, 8, 13, 14, 18, 22, 25, 30, 32, 34, 35, 38, 41 and 43.  There are some nice low numbers there, both singles and in the teens, so keep an eye out for those.  But overall the spread of non appearances was quite even.

And what about pairings – did we see any of these during December?  In actual fact we didn't even see one single pair!  Could this point to more of them popping up next month?  Keep it in mind for your ticket selections!

Other winners

We've looked at the jackpot prizes already, but of course there are people who win the five numbers plus bonus ball prizes as well.  How did they do during December?

On Wednesday 3rd December, seventeen lucky winners walked away with £39,596 each.

On Saturday 6th December, eleven people picked the right numbers to bag £142,723 each.

On Wednesday 10th December, nine winners picked up £83,481 each.

On Saturday 13th December, an impressive fourteen people won £100,395 each.

On Wednesday 17th December, just four people bagged £205,726 each.

On Saturday 20th December, a whopping thirty seven people netted £29,137 each.

On Wednesday 24th December, six lucky people won £171,080 each.

On Saturday 27th December, eleven people won £95,963 each.

On Wednesday 31st December, a further eleven people got £85,116 each.

The highest payout was £205,726 on the 17th, while the lowest was just £29,137 just one draw later.  This low payout went to the highest number of five plus bonus winners for the month – an incredible thirty seven people!  The lowest was four people, and they picked up the highest share for the month.

Thunderball Results

Let's move on and see how the Thunderball numbers were drawn during December.

Date	Thunderball Number
Wed 03 Dec	8
Sat 06 Dec	13
Wed 10 Dec	1
Sat 13 Dec	7
Wed 17 Dec	9
Sat 20 Dec	6
Wed 24 Dec	11
Sat 27 Dec	4
Wed 31 Dec	7

As you can see there was quite a mixed spread of numbers appearing during December.  The only number to appear more than once was the number 7, which popped out on the 13th and 31st respectively.

EuroMillions

Date	Jackpot
Fri 5th Dec	£12.99m
Fri 12th Dec	£13.44m
Fri 19th Dec	£14.01m
Fri 26th Dec	£25.72m

There was one winner for the first draw and two for the second, but then we didn't see any more winners for the rest of the month, hence the larger draw on Boxing Day.

So there will be a big jackpot to kick off the New Year with, that's for certain!

Lotto Hotpicks

We've had just three winners for the whole of October and November, so did we get any lucky winners of the £130,000 top prize during the final month of the year?

Well as it happens there were two winners on the 10th December, but that was all in total.  Maybe we will be down to just one winner again to start the New Year…

Dream Number

This sounds like a doddle to win because there are only a few numbers to choose from.  The trouble is, in order to win the £500,000 prize you need to get them all in the right order as they are drawn.

And that is why we had no winners yet again for the month of December.  Better luck next year!

Daily Play

This is the most frequent draw of the lot, with one taking place every single day except for Sundays.  However a lot less people tend to enter this one compared to the main Lotto draw, probably mostly because the jackpots can be so different.  We're talking about an amount of just £30,000 for this one, which is a nice sum of money but certainly not in the millions.

So did we see any winners during December?

We certainly did – two in all, one on the 2nd and one right at the end of the month on the 31st.  If you weren't among the other winners, perhaps you should give it a go next month?

Overall results

On the whole there were no major wins this month – and no huge jackpots around the Christmas period, such as there have been at times in the past.  But there was of course still a lot of money on offer to be won, and there is no doubt that some people ended the year somewhat richer than they were at the start of it.

There were a couple of more extreme results in the main lottery draw, but they were to do with the number of winners there were, rather than seeing any strange number sequences popping out.  Perhaps that means the results will be more unusual next month?  Keep an eye out to see what happens next.

If you didn't have much luck during 2008, perhaps 2009 will be a better year for you.  Keep an eye on those winning numbers and see if you can spot a pattern.  While all the draws are of course random and each ball has an equal chance of coming out, some people have claimed they can lower the odds of winning if they take the time to see what has been drawn in the past.

If that is the case, you are reading the right article to help improve your chances for 2009!  Let our results and analysis help you to stand a better chance of winning a prize, and hopefully we might actually be mentioning you when we tell you how many jackpot winners there were during any particular month.

But whichever draw you decide to play, let us wish you good luck and a Happy - and lucky - New Year.

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