Secret Santa generator / How it works

A Secret Santa draw, from start to surprise.

Make a complete draw, give each person their own link, and pick up where you left off.

1. Add your people

Paste one name per line. You can add 3–100 participants. If two people share a name, add an initial or surname so they are easy to tell apart. Nobody draws themselves, and everyone gives and receives exactly one gift.

2. Set exclusions

Select couples or households to keep group members from drawing each other. For more specific rules, add a one-way exclusion or make it apply both ways. Overlapping household rules apply together.

The generator checks for a complete matching. If your rules cannot work, it identifies givers who collectively have too few eligible recipients. Learn more in the household exclusions guide.

Reuse last year without repeating matches

In the Exclusions step, open “Avoid last year’s matches” and import a completed Quick Secret Santa backup with its password. The tool reads it on your device, matches current names to last year’s names, and adds one-way exclusions for old giver–recipient pairs. It skips absent people and does not replace the current event. Renamed people need manual rules. Review the imported rules; combining past-year and household exclusions can make a draw impossible.

3. Agree on the details

Add an event name, optional budget, exchange date, and a short note. These details are included in each personal result link. Once links have been created, those details cannot be updated inside links you already sent.

4. Share one result per person

Copy an individual link, show that person’s QR code, use your device’s share menu, or open your own email app. The website does not send email. Use “Preview & print QR cards” to prepare a party kit: an organizer checklist and foldable named cards with the budget, date and scanning instructions. Preview before printing on A4 or US Letter. Cards do not display the recipient’s name; anyone with a code can open its result.

Mark each person as sent to keep track manually. This is not a read receipt. Opening a link on someone’s phone does not send a notification back to the organizer.

5. Save a backup

Your settings, result links, and checklist are saved in the current browser when storage is available. Refreshing does not require a redraw. Clearing browser data, using private browsing, changing browser, or changing device may remove access to that saved draw.

Use “Backup / restore” to download a password-protected backup. Keep the password separately; we cannot reset or recover it. You can restore the file on another device using the same password. Restoring replaces the current event after confirmation; other events are kept. Use “My events” to keep up to 12 separate exchanges in this browser. Each backup protects one event, so export every event you need before clearing browser data.

What “private link” actually means

Each link carries only one pairing and the event details. Its data is stored after the # in the URL, which ordinary HTTP requests do not send to the hosting server. The page opens it locally using browser cryptography. The complete link contains the key needed to read that result.

The organizer screen hides pairings, but the organizer holds all the links and can open them. Anyone else with a complete link can also view it. Do not post the organizer’s complete link list or backup publicly.

If you need to redraw

Stop distributing the old links. Tell everyone the old draw has been replaced, create the new version, and send the new link to every participant. Old links cannot be revoked or remotely changed.

Help people choose gifts

Share the fillable and printable Secret Santa questionnaire. Participants create private snapshot links for their answers. Before drawing, paste each person’s link under “Attach gift questionnaires” in the Details step. The assigned Santa can then open their recipient’s preferences from their result. There is no live synchronization: changing a questionnaire requires a new snapshot, and replacing an attachment in existing results requires a new draw and new links.