His wife covered a small Christmas tree in scratchies bought as a gift for her husband.

Among the branches of the 'scratchie tree' was a winning $1 Christmas Gift Instant Scratch-Its ticket worth $10,000.

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"On Christmas night, we took them all off and divided them between us. It was my brother-in-law who scratched the winning ticket," he said.

"I guess I can say now that money really does grow on trees!

"We kept the coin he used to scratch the winning ticket, and we'll be using that on all scratchies going forward. Hopefully, it will work again!

"You can say we certainly got into the Christmas spirit that night to celebrate.

"Things like this don't happen all the time! It's the only time in my life we might see a win like this, so we wanted to enjoy the moment! Even if we were slightly dusty the next day!"

The man said he would spend the cash on home renovations, which they had been saving up for all last year.

"The money will go towards those and a few other bills. It takes the pressure off a bit, and we'll be relieved to get them done so we can enjoy them," he said.

The winning scratchie was purchased at Schafer's Glen Innes Newsagency.

Owner Guy Shafer said the lucky customer had returned to let him know about his win.

"We've sold other top prizes in the past but not for a while, so it's great to break the drought," he said.

The family wanted to remain anonymous.

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