¡Viva Santa Claus y la lotería! Good ol' San Nicolás came a little early this Christmas in Spain, dispersing $3.4 billion-dollar lottery to thousands in a country that has been suffering from an economic crisis and an unemployment rate over 25 percent.

For 200 years, the Spanish Christmas lottery has literally become treasured tradition.

The news had one sleepy ticket holder jumping out of his bed in astonishment after hearing the television announce his ticket number for "El Gordo" (The Fat One) -- the lottery's top prize, 400,000-euro ($546,200) payoff.

It was a family-affair for a 27-year-old mechanic named Raul Clavero, living in the Madrid suburb of Leganes. Clavero and four other members of his family hit the jackpot as well -- they had also bought tickets with the same winning numbers.

According to The Associated Press, millions of Spaniards had been glued to their televisions as 2.5 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in prize money was distributed in a four-hour TV show. Unlike lotteries that offer one large jackpot, Spain's yuletide drawing sprinkles a variety of winnings on thousands of ticketholders.

TV stations across the country broadcasted stories of the lottery winners, bringing a ray of light to Spaniards across the country during dark fiscal times.

"Before Spain's property-led economic boom imploded in 2008, ticket buyers often talked about spending their winnings on new cars, beach homes or fancy vacations. Now many Spaniards are just hoping to avoid having their homes or cars repossessed," the AP points out.

For lottery winner, Clavero, his lucky earnings are all about the bills -- he said he's going to "pay the mortgage, that's the first thing, and then just enjoy the rest."

"Winning El Gordo tickets this year were sold in at least eight locations throughout the country, including Madrid, Barcelona and the northern industrial city of Modragon, where electrical appliance manufacturer Fagor Electrodomesticos filed for bankruptcy in October," the AP reports.

"The second-best number netted winners €125,000 ($170,700) and all these tickets -- worth 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million) - were sold in the town of Granadilla de Abona on the Canary Island resort of Tenerife."

With the Christmas joy, unfortunately comes with a reality check.

For the first time, big winners in Spain's annual Christmas lottery will have to pay a 20 percent tax on their winnings if the prize is greater than 2,500 euros, or $3,425, according to CNN.

"In Spain's deep economic crisis, the government started taxing all major lottery winnings in 2013 and expects to collect about $1 billion this year," CNN adds.

"On Sunday alone, in the annual Christmas lottery that will pay out about $3 billion in prize money, the government anticipates collecting tens of millions of dollars in taxes, the Treasury Ministry told CNN.

Overall, most of the prizes are fairly small, but the winners who got a bigger piece of the pie -- those who are considered the "lucky ones," holding part of the $875 million (640 million euro) first place prize, hence 'El Gordo' ("the fat one") -- have to face a hefty tax.

For example, "a $27.40 (20 euro) lottery ticket that matches all the numbers of the first place El Gordo prize would win $548,000 (400,000 euros), but the winner would have to pay $109,000 (80,000 euros) in taxes," the Treasury Ministry added.