Secret Santa Generator
Secret Santa generator: type the names, draw, and send each person a private link to see who they give to. Free, with no sign-up or emails.
Who’s in?
3 to 100 people. Paste a whole list into any row and each name gets its own.
Keep apart (optional)
These two can’t draw each other: couples, siblings.
Budget and date (optional)
Shown on each person’s link.
How the Secret Santa Generator Works
- Add everyone’s names. One name per row, or paste a whole list. Keep couples or siblings apart, and add a budget and an exchange date if you like.
- Draw names. Everyone gives once and receives once, and nobody draws themselves. Every possible draw has the same chance, picked with your browser’s cryptographically secure random number generator.
- Send each person their link. Copy or share each person’s private link. They open it, spin a small wheel of the group’s names, and it lands on the person they’re giving a gift to.
Why No Sign-Up or Emails
You shouldn’t need everyone’s email address to swap gifts. This generator asks for names and nothing else: no accounts to make, no emails to confirm, nothing for anyone to install.
The names never reach us. Each person’s draw is kept in the part of their link after the #, which browsers don’t send to websites, and we run no analytics on the page that opens it. Your list stays in your browser until you click Start again, so a reload won’t lose it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does anyone see who drew whom?
Not on this page, and not us. The organizer gets a list of links rather than a list of who drew whom, and each person sees only their own draw, so the organizer can join in too. The links aren’t locked, though: the names in them are scrambled so a glance won’t spoil anything, not encrypted, so someone determined could decode a link or open someone else’s. That’s fine for a gift swap, which is all it’s for.
Can couples be kept apart?
Yes. Under “Keep apart”, choose two names and they can’t draw each other. Add as many pairs as you need: couples, siblings, whoever swapped last year. If the pairs leave no possible draw, the page says who’s stuck, so you can remove a pair or add another person.
Is it free?
Yes. It’s free, with no sign-up and no emails, and you can run as many draws as you like.
What’s a good budget?
Whatever the person with the tightest budget is happy with. $10 to $25 suits most offices and families, and in a class $5 or something homemade keeps it easy. Set it before you draw and it shows on everyone’s link.
How do I run Secret Santa at work or in class?
At work, paste the team’s names, set a budget and a date, draw, and send each link in a direct message rather than the group chat. In class, first names are all it needs: send each link to a parent, or open it for one child at a time on a class tablet.
How many people can join?
From 3 to 100. Two people with the same name need a last initial, so nobody mixes up their links.
What if someone loses their link?
Ask the organizer. The links stay in the browser that drew them until they click Start again, so the same link can be copied again. If the list is gone, draw again and send everyone new links: the old ones won’t match the new draw.
Everyone in One Room?
The Secret Santa wheel draws names on the big screen, one spin per person, and these keep the party going.
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