A Christmas Mega-Miracle in California Drawing Date: 12/24/2024 April 7, 2025 - Winning the California Lottery can be a process. It can take some time to find out who the winner of a prize is. Sometimes, the larger the prize, the longer it takes. Last December turned out to be a very winning month in California. It began with one large $47 million SuperLotto Plus win by Fernando Diego with a ticket caught at the Fresh Catch Seafood Market in Artesia. In the same month, as the Mega Millions® jackpot grew toward $1 billion, Kyle Ramos was standing in the checkout line at the Lemoore Save Mart. He and his family had traveled there to be with family for the holidays. “I just happened to look straight ahead, and there was a Lottery machine,” recounted Ramos cheerfully. “I told my wife, ‘Oh yeah. The Lottery is up to like two billion or one billion,’ and she was like ‘Go get a ticket!’” Then they went on about their holidays, visiting family in the town where he and his wife grew up. They eventually returned home for their own celebrations. “I’m mainly a Scratchers person,” said Kyle, but he admits as he’s gotten older, when people at work are talking about the growing jackpot, he’s played the draw games more, especially the bigger jackpots in recent years. Late on Christmas Eve, as he and his wife were about to go to bed, he was scrolling through social media and saw something that said no one had won the Mega Millions jackpot, which had just become $1 billion, but that someone had won more than $1 million. “So I got my ticket out,” he recalled, “to see if I won, you know, like 10 bucks, 20 bucks, maybe 100 bucks.” Kyle used the California Lottery app on his phone and scanned the ticket. Then he started to blink and rub his eyes. His wife didn’t believe it either. “There’s gotta be a glitch,” she said. They closed the app and restarted to scan again. The lucky couple had matched five numbers, missing just the Mega number, to win a whopping second-place prize of $1,774,447. Three days later, at the other end of the Central Valley, in Cottonwood, Rosemary Casarotti would finally reel in the jackpot. But not before the Ramos family Christmas miracle. The Miracle Part of the Story Earlier that month, Ramos and his family, in the spirit of the season, took a ride to Candy Cane Lane in Clovis, as so many families do during that time of year. “One of the houses has a huge, like, blank paper book where people can write their wish list or what they wish for,” Ramos told the California Lottery. “I remember writing on it that for Christmas I wished to win the lottery.” Kyle’s wish came true, and the money has made more wishes come true as he and his family moved to a place in California they’d always dreamed of living. Soon, they plan to find the right house to buy. With every daydream purchase, California Lottery players contribute to everyday student dreams by providing extra money to California public education. To see a series of videos highlighting programs supported through California Lottery sales, visit the official YouTube account of the California Lottery. For information regarding specific schools and school districts, visit calottery.com/who-benefits for an interactive map, along with up-to-date reports on recent audits of the California Lottery.