New Mexico Holiday Scratchers: What to Buy and What to Skip (October 2026)
3 New Mexico holiday scratchers are on sale as of October 14, 2026. The best of them by current payout is Winter Cash ($1) at 60.3%, 1 in 4.76 for any prize. As a group they are the worse buy: a median payout of 59.1% against 60.3% across all 47 games on sale. Festive packaging is not a better ticket.
New Mexico holiday scratchers on sale, best payout first
- 1 $1
Winter Cash
#69360.3% payout now- EV / ticket
- $0.60
- Any prize
- 1 in 4.76
- Beats price
- 1 in 11.1
- Top prizes
- 4,179 of 4,213
Best payout New - 2 $5
Snowman Cash
#69659.1% payout now- EV / ticket
- $2.96
- Any prize
- 1 in 3.65
- Beats price
- 1 in 7.06
- Top prizes
- 3 of 3
New - 3 $2
ELF
#69458.9% payout now- EV / ticket
- $1.18
- Any prize
- 1 in 3.98
- Beats price
- 1 in 8.03
- Top prizes
- 20 of 20
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 Cash New | $1 | 60.3% | $0.60 | 1 in 4.76 | 1 in 11.1 | 1 in 11.1 | $25 | 4,179 | — |
| 2. Snowman Cash New | $5 | 59.1% | $2.96 | 1 in 3.65 | 1 in 3.65 | 1 in 7.06 | $5,000 | 3 | — |
| 3. ELF New | $2 | 58.9% | $1.18 | 1 in 3.98 | 1 in 4.89 | 1 in 8.03 | $500 | 20 | — |
Why holiday scratchers 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 New Mexico right now that share is lower than the state's ordinary games: a median 59.1% against 60.3%. Buying the festive ticket costs you about 1.2% 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 New Mexico, 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 scratchers — 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.
- Merry Money 5X — $2, claim by December 16, 2026, 5 of 18 top prizes unclaimed
- Merry Money — $1, claim by December 16, 2026, 990 of 4,217 top prizes unclaimed
New Mexico holiday scratchers: common questions
- How many New Mexico holiday scratchers are on sale right now?
- 3 as of October 14, 2026, plus 2 that have stopped selling but can still be claimed.
- Are holiday scratchers a better bet than normal ones?
- No. In New Mexico today the holiday games return a median 59.1% against 60.3% across all 47 games on sale. They are marketed harder and pay less.
- When do New Mexico holiday scratchers go on sale?
- New Mexico has released its holiday range in October and November: the games we hold launched between October 7, 2025 and October 6, 2026. This page lists the new range the day the New Mexico Lottery publishes it, because we re-read the official prize data every day.
- Can I still claim a holiday scratcher from last year?
- 2 New Mexico holiday scratchers 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.