Add everyone taking part, choose who should not draw whom, and draw. Each person gets their own link to a scratch card that shows only who they are buying for.
Stuck on what to buy? Spin the wheel for a gift idea
This Secret Santa generator draws names for a gift exchange so that everyone gives one gift, everyone receives one, and nobody draws themselves. Type the names in, or reuse a list you have already saved on the site, then press Draw. The draw uses your browser's cryptographic random number generator, so nobody can predict or steer who gets whom.
Instead of a list everyone could peek at, each person gets a private link. Opening it shows a scratch card with their name on top, and scratching reveals who they are buying for, along with the budget and exchange date if you set them. The link carries only that one result, so a link forwarded to the wrong person gives away a single pairing rather than the whole draw.
If everyone is in the same room, there is a second way to do it. Pass the phone around: each person taps their own name, scratches to see their match, then hides it before handing the phone on. Nobody sees anyone else's result, including the person who set it up.
Exclusions keep couples, housemates or last year's pairs from drawing each other. Turn on One big loop and everyone buys for the next person in a single chain, so no two people simply swap gifts. If your exclusions make a fair draw impossible, the generator tells you instead of quietly bending the rules.
Simple, fast, and fun
Type or paste the names into the list, one per line. Saved lists from the rest of the site work here too, so a class or team list only needs typing once.
Optionally add an event name, a budget and the exchange date, then add exclusions for anyone who should not draw each other.
Press Draw. Everyone is matched with one person to buy for, nobody draws themselves, and every exclusion is respected.
Copy or share each person's private link and send it to them directly. They open it, scratch the card, and find out who they are buying for.
Built for fairness and fun
Each person's link opens a scratch card with only their own match under the foil.
Stop couples, housemates or last year's pairs from drawing each other. Add as many as you need.
An optional single chain through everyone, so nobody ends up swapping gifts with the person who drew them.
Draw in person on one device. Each person sees their own match and hides it before handing the phone on.
Nothing to register and no addresses to collect. Send the links however your group already talks.
The latest draw is kept in your browser, so the organizer can send someone their link again later from the same device.
Get the most out of this tool
A clear limit takes the awkwardness out of a mixed group. Put it in the budget field and everyone sees it when they open their link.
If the same group meets every year, add last year's pairings as exclusions so everyone gets someone new.
With four or five people, an ordinary draw often pairs two people who buy for each other. One big loop rules that out.
Send each link in a direct message rather than posting them all in the group chat, where someone could tap the wrong one.
A new draw makes new pairings, so links already sent stop matching. If you must redraw, send everyone their new link.
Great for any occasion
Send each colleague their link in a direct message. The organizer does not need to collect email addresses, and nobody has to create an account.
Exclude partners and anyone who already buys for each other, set a budget so nobody overspends, and draw for the whole family at once.
When the group is spread across cities, private links work over any messaging app, so the draw does not wait for everyone to be in one room.
Use pass the phone to draw in person. Everyone gets their match on the spot, and nobody leaves knowing anyone else's.
Teachers can draw for a whole class in seconds and pass a tablet around, with a modest budget shown to every student.
Any one-for-one exchange works the same way: draw names, and everyone knows exactly who their swap is for.
A Secret Santa draw is a shuffle with one extra rule: nobody may draw themselves. Mathematicians call an arrangement like that a derangement. Shuffling everyone and checking the result works well, because a little over a third of all shuffles already have nobody holding their own name, so a few tries is usually enough.
Exclusions add more rules, and enough of them can make a draw impossible. With three people, excluding two of them from each other leaves the third person as the only option for both, which cannot work. A fair generator should spot this and tell you, rather than quietly breaking an exclusion to finish the draw.
Keeping the result private is the other half. Here, each person's match is stored in their own link, after the # sign. Browsers never send that part of a link to a server, so the pairings exist only in the links themselves, and in the organizer's browser until they draw again.
Everything you need to know
Yes. There is no account to create and no email addresses to enter. Draw as many times as you like.
Not by default. The organizer's screen lists only who each link is for, and showing every match is a separate step that warns you first. Because the organizer creates the links, they could open someone else's. If the organizer is taking part and wants a surprise too, use pass the phone, where each person reveals their own match in private.
An exclusion is a pair of people who should not draw each other, in either direction. Couples and housemates are the usual ones. If the exclusions leave no possible draw, the generator says so, and if one person is excluded from everyone else it names them.
Everyone buys for the next person in one continuous chain that comes back around to the start. It means no two people buy for each other, which can feel more like a surprise in a small group.
The latest draw is kept in the organizer's browser, so the organizer can open the Secret Santa page on the same device and copy that person's link again.
Yes, but a new draw makes new pairings, so any links you have already sent will no longer match. Send everyone their new link after a redraw.
Not on our servers. Each result lives in its own link, after the # sign, which browsers never send to a server. The organizer's latest draw is saved only in their own browser so they can copy links again.
Yes. Kris Kringle, Pollyanna, a name draw and pulling names out of a hat are all the same idea: everyone draws one person to buy for, and nobody draws themselves. Only the name changes from place to place.
With only two, each person would know exactly who drew them, which spoils the secret. Three is the smallest group where the draw stays a surprise.
Jump in. It's free, instant, and actually fun. No sign-up, no nonsense.
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