Maryland Holiday Scratch-Offs: What to Buy and What to Skip (November 2026)
3 Maryland holiday scratch-offs are on sale as of November 5, 2026. The best of them by current payout is Winter Multiplier ($10) at 74.9%, 1 in 3.38 for any prize. As a group they are the worse buy: a median payout of 67.7% against 73.3% across all 59 games on sale. Festive packaging is not a better ticket.
Maryland holiday scratch-offs on sale, best payout first
- 1 $10
Winter Multiplier
#82474.9% payout now- EV / ticket
- $7.49
- Any prize
- 1 in 3.38
- Beats price
- 1 in 5.16
- Top prizes
- 8 of 9
Best payout New - 2 $3
Peppermint Payout
#82267.7% payout now- EV / ticket
- $2.03
- Any prize
- 1 in 3.96
- Beats price
- 1 in 7.45
- Top prizes
- 6 of 6
New - 3 $2
Season's Greetings
#82164.2% payout now- EV / ticket
- $1.28
- Any prize
- 1 in 3.93
- Beats price
- 1 in 6.78
- Top prizes
- 5 of 6
New
Payout is what the remaining prize pool returns per dollar; profit odds count only prizes larger than the ticket price. Definitions are on the methodology page.
Compare all 3 games in a table
| # Game | Price | Payout now | EV / ticket | Any-prize odds | Cash odds | Profit odds | Top prize | Top left | 7-day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Winter Multiplier New | $10 | 74.9% | $7.49 | 1 in 3.38 | 1 in 3.38 | 1 in 5.16 | $100,000 | 8 | +0.3 pts |
| 2. Peppermint Payout New | $3 | 67.7% | $2.03 | 1 in 3.96 | 1 in 3.96 | 1 in 7.45 | $30,000 | 6 | -0.1 pts |
| 3. Season's Greetings New | $2 | 64.2% | $1.28 | 1 in 3.93 | 1 in 3.93 | 1 in 6.78 | $10,000 | 5 | -0.3 pts |
Why holiday scratch-offs usually pay less
A holiday range is the most heavily promoted thing a state lottery sells. The tickets are bigger, the artwork is better, and they arrive at the one time of year when people who never buy a scratcher buy one as a gift. None of that changes the arithmetic. The prize pool is printed before the game ships, and the share of each dollar it returns is set at the same time. In Maryland right now that share is lower than the state's ordinary games: a median 67.7% against 73.3%. Buying the festive ticket costs you about 5.7% of every dollar. The one thing a new holiday game does guarantee is that its top prizes are still unclaimed, which is not true of a game that has been on the shelf since spring.
If you are buying a scratcher as a gift, the useful question is not which game is festive but which is still worth handing over. The payout ranking answers that for every game in Maryland, and the top prizes still unclaimed list shows which games have their headline prize in play. Both are free and both are recomputed daily.
Last year's holiday scratch-offs — stopped selling, still claimable
These are out of the shops. If you were given one, or found one in a coat pocket, the claim window is what matters now.
- Festive Fortune — $5, claim by November 30, 2026, 3 of 8 top prizes unclaimed
- Candy Cane Cash — $3, claim by November 30, 2026, 2 of 6 top prizes unclaimed
Maryland holiday scratch-offs: common questions
- How many Maryland holiday scratch-offs are on sale right now?
- 3 as of November 5, 2026, plus 2 that have stopped selling but can still be claimed.
- Are holiday scratch-offs a better bet than normal ones?
- No. In Maryland today the holiday games return a median 67.7% against 73.3% across all 59 games on sale. They are marketed harder and pay less.
- When do Maryland holiday scratch-offs go on sale?
- Maryland has released its holiday range in October and November: the games we hold launched between October 17, 2025 and October 16, 2026. This page lists the new range the day the Maryland Lottery publishes it, because we re-read the official prize data every day.
- Can I still claim a holiday scratch-off from last year?
- 2 Maryland holiday scratch-offs have stopped selling and are still claimable — check each game's last claim date below before you throw a ticket away.
- Do unclaimed holiday prizes carry over?
- No. Every game is a fixed pool printed before it ships, and prizes that are never claimed are simply never paid. That is why a game late in its life can look generous on paper: the money is still in the pool, but so are the tickets.