OAK CREEK, Wis (CBS 58) - On a slow Christmas Eve at the Love’s Travel Shop in Oak Creek, the Powerball hopefulness was running high.

“You’re not a winner unless you try,” Powerball player Alicia Fish said. “Those elves are working hard so maybe they’re working their magic on this one.”

The Powerball jackpot is sitting at $1.7 billion ahead of Christmas, the 4th highest it’s ever been.

“It’s huge, and when it gets huge then I’ll waste my money,” Powerball player Henry Osier said. “Ya never know, you gotta try.”

The odds of winning the jackpot are around one in 292 million, so families are doing what they can to get lucky this holiday season.

“While we were eating, we got our numbers and everybody put their numbers in so we could win the billion dollars,” Powerball player Pug Dillman said.

Dillman and her family chose their numbers this time, something they have never done before.

“This is the first time that we picked our own numbers, not leaving it up to AI or anything like that,” Powerball player Arlo Dillman said. “We had the whole family around the table and each of us took a row and put numbers that we thought were on the Powerball, each of us.”