In case John Lewis and Sainbury’s offerings hadn’t already overstuffed you with festive tidings, Spain national lottery has just released its own tear-jerker – complete with music by the Irish singer James Vincent McMorrow.

With six weeks to the big day, Spain is getting ready for its annual El Gordo (‘The fat one’) lottery, with an expensive new advert designed to tug at the hearstrings.

El Gordo is an annual institution in Spain, with more than 30 million people hoping their numbers come up in the huge prize draw. With the total prize fund on offer a massive €2.2bn, el Gordo is billed as the world’s biggest lottery prize.

Now, Spain’s lottery operator has unveiled its Christmas campaign, which El País reports cost €840,000.

Filmed in Madrid, the advert, which tells the story of a down-on-his-luck man feeling the love at Christmas, features the song ‘Glacier’ by James Vincent McMarrow. Check out the advert and the song here:

The advert tells the story of a man who forgets to buy his usual lottery ticket from his local bar, only to have that number win the top prize that year – and what happens when he goes down for a cup of coffee, practically in tears. It's part of a series of interconnected stories all under the slogan El mayor premio es compartirlo ('The best prize is sharing it').

Director Santiago Zannou spoke highly of McMorrow's music, saying: “We needed a song that was not too well-known in our country, because emotions were already contained within our characters. We wanted a good song to stick in at the last moment, when the actors have already pulled on our heartstrings and a tear is starting to roll down your cheek.”