The post-Christmas period can hit some Yukoners hard as holiday bills come in, but for one lucky couple, the new year has brought a lottery win.

Lloyd Bjork walked into the McCrae Petro Canada on Wednesday afternoon to check some of the tickets he had bought in the previous month.

'I usually buy my tickets for a couple of months and then go check them,' Bjork said in an interview today.

'I didn't know I held a winner this time.'

The 6/49 ticket he had purchased for the Dec. 19 draw turned out to be the lucky ticket.

The teller told Bjork the lottery office had been waiting for him, because he was one of five Canadian winners of a $319,250 prize. Bjork's winnings total $63,850.

'The first thing I did was drive down to the lottery office,' he said.

Bjork called his wife, Leah, en route. She did not believe he had won.

'She thought I was pulling her leg. Finally, she believed me, because after 30-something years of marriage, you gotta believe each other sometime.'

A statement from Lotteries Yukon confirms all necessary paperwork has been processed for Bjork to receive his prize from the Western Canada Lottery Corp. Once his ticket and validation slip are received in Winnipeg, the money will be his.

'It's quite the process. They tell me it'll be a week to 10 days before I get my cheque,' Bjork said.

Bjork works at Yukon Alaska Transport as a trucker, and said it'll be easy to spend the money. He said most of it will be spent in Whitehorse stores, but that he doesn't know on what.

'My wife'll work on that,' he said.

Bjork said he had been playing the 6/49 since its inception in June 1982.

He figures the $63,850 prize will probably let him break even with all the lottery tickets he's purchased over the years.

Every week, he said, he purchased two to three five-packs, and lets the computers pick the numbers for him.

'There's no expertise on my end of things,' he laughed.

Bjork had once won $1,600 playing the lottery about five years ago. He said this big win comes at a great time.

'It's a good time to win, in January, because every year, January comes and you never know what's going to come up.'

Carol Arntzen, Lotteries Yukon's general manager, said when the cheque arrives, she will present Bjork with a large-scale replica version as a photo opportunity.

Arntzen had put out a call looking for the Yukoner who had purchased the ticket, knowing it had been bought in Whitehorse.