What Christmas is like when you’ve just won £1m on a scratchcard

Disneyland Paris, pigs in blankets and plentiful prosecco

The news may be difficult for some to swallow (Getty Images)

Indulgent food, drinks, parties, travelling and presents make Christmas an expensive time of year, so imagine how great it would be to have won £1m in the run up?

For one lucky couple, that’s exactly what happened.

Last February, 31-year-old Natalie and her husband Andrew from Blackpool won £1m on a scratchcard after Andrew randomly decided to buy one when picking up teabags.

Natalie was at a playcentre with the couple’s three-year-old daughter when Andrew called to tell her the incredible news that they’d won the money.

“I just put the kettle on and made a cup of tea and went and sat down,” she explains, revealing that neither of them could believe what they were looking at.

Finally able to afford the wedding they’d always wanted, Andrew proposed to Natalie that evening - he’d already bought the ring, but the win gave him the push he needed.

“It was my Nana’s engagement ring and he’d had it reset. It was really lovely,” Natalie told Refinery 29.

Despite their newfound riches, the family hasn’t had any huge extravagances over the year except for a trip to New York and some home improvements.

It could have been tempting, however, to blow a lot of the money over Christmas.

But aside from a festive trip to Disneyland Paris “as a special treat for our daughter,” the couple decided to keep their Christmas much like every other year.

“We have 13 people coming round to ours this year and that’s what we always do. We’re very down-to-earth people,” Natalie explained before the big day.

That said, the couple did treat themselves a bit - they ordered a bigger turkey, more pigs in blankets and a few extra bottles of prosecco.

With all your family and friends knowing about your windfall there must surely be a lot of pressure to buy expensive presents for everyone though?

Not for Natalie and Andrew, who decided not to spoil anyone really. “Our daughter needs to understand that nothing has changed, really,” Natalie said, adding that “Disneyland is a big treat.”

Encouragingly for mankind, Natalie revealed that no one had actually asked them for anything, and the couple seem to have their heads firmly on their shoulders: “Obviously it’s an amazing amount of money but you have to be really, really sensible with it to make sure it lasts for you and your family. You could quite easily spend a million pounds these days.”

It's like the Grinch says: maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store.