Scottish people may be known for being fun loving, but research from The National Lottery has today (Friday 14 October) unveiled that some prefer to keep their merriments low key.

While Scotland is renowned for its world-famous celebrations including Hogmanay and the month-long Edinburgh Festival, it’s been found that over 54% of Scots are most likely to mark life changing moments by enjoying a slap-up meal with the family!

A quarter of Scottish people think they would book a holiday to jet off to sunnier climes to celebrate a life-changing moment in their lives while other options included  going on a shopping spree (18%) and taking a day off work (13%).

The survey, which explored how the UK celebrates momentous occasions, revealed that one year on from winning the lottery 53% of Scots could see themselves living in a new house. Others say that they would settle into the millionaire lifestyle by buying a different wardrobe of clothes every month (15%), sitting in the VIP Box watching their favourite football team (13%) or even living on their own private desert island (7%).

While some think they would cry tears of joy if their news was really amazing (23%), most Scots said they would smile so hard their cheeks hurt (47%) and over one in 10 would find their big moment jaw dropping.

The results also suggest that Scots are romantics, as if they had a winning lottery ticket in their hand, they are most likely to stare at it as if it was their first love (32%). This love-struck gesture topped other popular choices of dancing around the room with the ticket (28%), running down the street waving it for all to see (4%) or, of course, taking a selfie for social media (5%).

Paying out players across the UK, the National Lottery team of winner advisors know everything about the winning celebration and have seen everything from huge parties in full swing to people prepared to keep it a secret and tell no one. 

Andy Carter, Senior Winners Advisor for Camelot, said: “People always imagine having extravagant, luxurious celebratory plans when they win the lottery.  While we have seen every kind of winning reaction, and sometimes even get invited to join in the party, it seems that for Scots simple celebrations can sometimes triumph – there’s nothing better than sharing the exciting winning news with close family and then sticking the kettle on! 

“With over six million National Lottery winners every week in the UK, there are lots of players out there experiencing their own life-changing emotions every single day when they claim their prize.”

The Lotto jackpot is capped at £22M and once it is reached the colossal sum has to be won in the next draw.  This means that if no one matches all six numbers in Saturdays draw then the giant jackpot has to be won on Wednesday 19 October.  So on Wednesday either a player will match all six numbers or the jackpot prize money will roll down into the next winning prize tier (most likely Match 5+Bonus).

It isn’t just individuals winning big, the entire community benefits from the money raised by The National Lottery. In 2015 2,192 grants worth £138,949,888 were distributed to National Lottery funded projects across Scotland.

Each National Lottery player helps to raise over £36M every week for Good Causes. This helps fund our athletes who just returned from Rio, the nation’s arts and heritage, and many thousands of projects in local communities across the UK.