Secret Santa Generator

A Secret Santa draw that keeps the secret

Pulling names from a hat works until somebody draws themselves, a couple ends up buying for each other, or half the group is on another continent. This generator does the draw for you and gives every person their own private link. When they open it they scratch a little paper card to see who they are buying for – and that is the only place their match ever appears.

How the draw works

1. Type the names, one per line – anything from three people to forty.
2. Optionally keep pairs apart. Couples, housemates or twins who would buy for each other anyway are never matched, in either direction.
3. Add a budget, an exchange date and a short note for everyone, such as where the party is.
4. Press Draw names. Every person is given someone else – never themselves and never a pair you kept apart. If your rules make that impossible (say, three people who are all kept apart from each other), the page says so instead of quietly breaking a rule.
5. Send each link on WhatsApp with one tap per person, or copy all the messages at once and paste them wherever your group talks.

Who can see the pairings?

The draw runs on our server. Each result is sealed into its person’s link with AES-256 encryption, so the organiser’s screen only ever shows names and links, never who drew whom. Nobody can work out a match by looking at a link address: each link is kept on our server under a short address, with the match inside it still encrypted. We say this plainly because it matters: the organiser does hold every link, so an organiser who opens someone else’s link would see that person’s match. If the organiser is also taking part, they simply open their own link like everyone else.

Wishlist hints, passed along anonymously

The hardest part of Secret Santa is guessing what someone wants. On their link, each person can leave a hint for whoever is buying for them – a size, a favourite author, “anything but socks”. Their Santa sees it on their own link, and the person who wrote it still has no idea who their Santa is. Hints are stored encrypted, tied to the group by a random number, and deleted automatically a week after the exchange date, or sixty days after the draw if you set no date.

Ideas for a smoother exchange

• Set a clear budget. A fixed amount, such as ₹500 or $25, keeps gifts fair and takes the pressure off.
• Pick the date before you draw, so it appears on everyone’s link.
• For an office, add the floor or meeting room to the note so remote colleagues know where to send gifts.
• Draw once. Drawing again makes a new set of links, and the old ones would still open, so send only one set.

Free and without sign-up

There is no account to create for the organiser or the participants, no email addresses to collect and nothing to install. The links work in any phone browser, including the one inside WhatsApp.