A Cairns man has confessed he almost fell off his chair while eating breakfast on Christmas Day after revealing a $10,000 prize on the Instant Scratch-Its ticket he received from his wife.

His top prize-winning $1 Christmas Gift Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased at Mt Sheridan Newspower, Shop 33, Mt Sheridan Plaza, 106 Barnard Drive, Mt Sheridan.

“It was a lovely Christmas Day!” the happy husband declared.

“My wife gave this ticket to me for Christmas. When I scratched it, I was sitting at the table having breakfast, and I nearly fell off the chair.

“We’d just been talking about people winning big on scratchies, and then I’m there looking at a ticket where I just scratched off $10,000!

“I looked at it 20 times, my wife looked at it 20 times, and then my mum and dad looked at it another 20 times.

“It still hasn’t sunk in.

“The most I’ve ever won on an Instant Scratch-Its ticket is $20.

“It’s going to help pay off some bills, and I’d love to have a holiday with the missus – maybe to the Barossa Valley or somewhere like that.”

Mt Sheridan Newspower owner Tash Grace said she was celebrating selling a top prize-winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket.

“Our customers are excited to see someone in the region win big. It proves that anyone can win!” she said.

“We’ve sold two other top prize-winning Instant Scratch-Its tickets during the past decade that I know of. These have all been won around Christmas.

“It's wonderful knowing that we've been able to make someone's day and having a win around Christmas time makes it even better!

“We hope our latest winner enjoys their windfall. What a great thing to wake up to on Christmas morning!”