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Secret Santa, drawn from a hat
Put the names in, draw, and send each person their own link. They open an envelope with one name inside. No sign-up, no email addresses, and nothing about your group is kept anywhere but the links.
How it works
- Type in everyone's first name. Each one drops into the hat as a slip of paper.
- Keep any two people apart if you need to, and add a budget, a swap day and a note if you like.
- Draw. Every person gets their own link. Send it to them however you talk: a text, WhatsApp, a message at work.
- They open it and see one name, on a card in an envelope. Nobody else sees it, you included.
Before anyone shops
Once names are drawn, everyone fills in the Secret Santa questionnaire and posts their card in the group chat: coffee or tea, sweet or salty, what to avoid. Whoever drew them reads it and nobody learns who drew whom. Playing white elephant instead? The white elephant helper runs the steals.
Questions
- Is it free?
- Yes. There is no sign-up and no email address to give. I run a gift shop in Canada and made this because every group I know draws names the same way every December.
- Can the organiser see who everyone got?
- Not from the page. After the draw you see one sealed envelope per person, with their name on the front and nobody inside. The only way to find out is to open a link that is not yours, so send each person only their own.
- Do you keep our names?
- No. The draw happens in your browser and each result travels inside its own link, after the # sign, which a browser never sends to a website. Your last draw is kept in your own browser so you do not lose the links, and nowhere else.
- Can I stop a couple drawing each other?
- Yes. Use Keep two people apart and pick the two names. You can keep as many pairs apart as you like, as long as a draw is still possible.
- What should the budget be?
- Whatever the smallest budget in the group is comfortable with. For family and friends $25 to $50 is common; for a team at work, whatever the company is putting in, or $25 if people pay their own.
- Someone lost their link. What now?
- If you drew the names on this device, open this page again: your last draw is still here, and you can copy their link again.
Once you have your name
The envelope suggests three of my boxes that fit your group's budget, with the card already written from “your Secret Santa”. Or look through every Christmas box, packed by hand in Canada and shipped free.