Secret Santa Generator

1. Enter everyone’s name, one per line. Use names people will recognise, and add an initial if two people share a name.
2. Add exclusions if some people should not draw each other, such as couples or people who live together. Write one pair per line, like “Alex & Sam”. Three names on a line keep a whole household apart.
3. Optionally add the event name, budget and exchange date. They appear on every reveal page and slip.
4. Press Draw names. You get a list of names with a Copy link button for each.
5. Send each person only their own link by text, chat or email. When they open it, they press Reveal to see their match.

The matches stay hidden on your screen unless you choose to show them, so you can run the draw and still take part. If you would rather hand out paper, press Print slips.

A fair draw is one where every allowed outcome is equally likely, the same as pulling names from a hat and starting again whenever someone picks themselves. The generator does exactly that, only faster: it shuffles all the names with a uniform shuffle that uses your browser’s cryptographic random number generator, and keeps the result only if nobody has themselves and no excluded pair is matched. If not, it reshuffles. Because no valid outcome is favoured, nobody can predict or steer the result.

Before shuffling, it checks that a valid draw exists at all. If your exclusions make it impossible (for example, one person is excluded from everyone else), it tells you instead of trying forever. With very tight rules, where random shuffles rarely succeed, it switches to a matching search that always finds a valid draw.

The names never leave your device when you draw. Each reveal link carries one match after the # sign at the end of the address. Browsers do not send that part of a link to any server, so our server never sees the names, even when someone opens their link. Nothing is stored in a database, and there are no accounts.

The match inside the link is scrambled so a name cannot be read in a chat preview or over someone’s shoulder. It is not strong encryption, so treat each link like the folded slip it replaces: send it only to its owner. Because nothing is stored, the links are the only copy of the draw. Use Save links to keep a text file of them, or the draw is gone when you close the page.

• Agree the budget first and put it in the draw, so it is on everyone’s reveal page.
• Ask each person to share a few gift ideas or a wish list with the group, without saying who they drew.
• For remote teams, add the delivery deadline as the exchange date so posted gifts arrive in time.
• If someone drops out after the draw, run a new draw for everyone rather than patching it, so the result stays fair and secret.

Our guide on how to run a fair Secret Santa covers budgets, remote exchanges and what to do when someone drops out.