Secret Santa generator
Add everyone’s names and send each person a private link that shows only who they’re buying for. No email, no sign-up, nothing stored.
How does Secret Santa work?
Everyone puts their name in a hat and draws one. The name you draw is the person you buy a gift for, and you keep it to yourself until the gifts are handed out. Each person gives one gift and gets one, and nobody knows who their Santa was until the reveal, if there is one.
The hat is the tricky part when half the group lives in another city, or when a couple keeps drawing each other. This page does the drawing and gives each person their own link to open.
How to draw names here
- Type everyone’s name, or paste a list into the first box. A group name is optional; it shows on every link.
- Under Keep apart, add anyone who shouldn’t draw each other: couples, housemates, the two who swapped gifts last year.
- Add a budget, the exchange date and a note (where, when, any house rules). Everyone sees these.
- Press Draw names, then send each person their link by WhatsApp, text or email. Each link opens with “Hi, name” and shows the match only after a tap, so it stays private even if someone else picks up the phone.
Secret Santa rules that keep it fun
- One budget, said out loud. Pick an amount everyone can manage and put it in the details, so it’s on every link.
- Set the date before you draw. Nobody wants to be shopping on the morning of the party.
- Ask for hints. A short wish list, a size, a favourite snack, or “nothing that needs dusting” saves a lot of guessing.
- Keep it secret until the exchange, even from your partner.
- Someone drops out? Draw again and send the new links.
- Far apart? Ship the gift straight to the person, and open them together on a video call.
Waiting for the exchange? Play today’s puzzles, a Christmas word search, or hide a message in a puzzle for your person.
Questions
Can the organizer see who got whom?
The page never shows the list, only one link per person. Each link holds that one person’s match, so an organizer could open someone else’s link and peek. If you are organizing and playing too, open only your own.
Do we need email addresses or accounts?
No. Send the links however you like: WhatsApp, a text, email, the office chat. Nothing is stored on our server: each person’s match sits inside their own link, after the # sign, and browsers never send that part to a server.
Someone lost their link. What now?
Open this page again in the browser you drew in. It remembers the draw and lets you send any link again.
Can I keep couples apart?
Yes. Add them under Keep apart and neither will draw the other. If the pairs make a draw impossible (three people and one couple, for example), the page tells you which pair to drop.
Someone dropped out after the draw.
Take their name out and draw again, then send everyone their new link. Links from the old draw keep showing the old match, so tell the group to use the new one.
Is the draw random?
Yes. Nobody can draw themselves, and every allowed way of pairing the group is equally likely.
How many people can join?
From 3 to 100.
Is it free?
Yes, with no sign-up and no limit.