Secret Santa generator

A Secret Santa gift exchange pairs everyone with one person to buy for, and keeps the draw a secret. This Secret Santa generator replaces names in a hat: nobody has to be in the same room, nobody draws their own name, and couples don't end up with each other.

After the draw, every participant gets their own private link. Send it however your group talks: text message, WhatsApp, email or Slack. When they open it, they see who they're buying for, that person's wish list, the budget, the exchange date and any note you added.

There's no sign-up, and nobody has to hand over an email address. The draw happens in your browser; names and matches aren't uploaded to a server.

With paper slips, and with many online name drawers, whoever runs the draw ends up knowing who has whom, so they can't really play. Here it works differently:

1. The matches are never shown. After the draw you see a list of names with a private link next to each one, and nothing else.
2. Each link is encrypted with its own key (AES-GCM, using your browser's built-in Web Crypto). You can't read anything by looking at the link.
3. The pairings aren't stored. Your browser keeps only the encrypted links, so you can resend one if someone loses theirs.
4. Links open locked on the organizer's device. If you're playing too, pick your own name: in your browser only your link opens, and everyone else's shows a locked message.

To be straight with you: the link is the key. Anyone who gets a link can open it, so send each person only their own. An organizer who sets out to cheat could open a link in another browser, but nobody will find out the pairings by accident.

The most common request is keeping partners and spouses from drawing each other. You have two simple tools.

Groups. Give people in the same household the same group name, such as "Smith". Nobody in a group can draw someone else in it, which also works for parents and kids or a team that already exchanges gifts.

Rules, one per line:

Rule	What it does
Emma - Liam	Emma and Liam can't draw each other
Emma > Liam	Emma can't draw Liam, but Liam can draw Emma
Emma, Liam, Ava	none of the three can draw each other

The one-way rule is handy when you don't want someone to get the same person as last year.

If you add too many exclusions, there may be no draw that fits them all. The generator warns you as you type and names the person it gets stuck on. Remove a rule or split a big group; a group that holds more than half of the participants can never work.

Most gift exchange stress comes from not knowing what the other person wants. You can add a wish list for each participant, and it's shown only to the person who draws them.

There are two ways to collect them:

• Type them in if people already sent you ideas.
• Send a wish list request link. Each person picks their name, writes a few ideas, and sends the link they get back to you. When you open it on your device, the wish list drops into the draw by itself. Run the draw after everyone has replied.

Set the budget as a range, such as $20 to $30, in US dollars or another currency. A clear spending limit keeps things fair, which matters most at work. The budget, date, place and your note appear on every private link, and people can add the exchange date to their calendar with one tap.

By message. Next to each name you can copy the link, open WhatsApp, open your own email app with the message filled in, or use your phone's share sheet. You can also copy all the messages at once. Don't post the list in a group chat; everyone should get only their own link.

Printable QR cards. For an office or classroom exchange, print a sheet of cards, each with a name and a QR code. Cut them apart, hand them out, and each person scans their own card with their phone camera. The codes don't give anything away at a glance.

Pass one phone around. If everyone is together, say at Thanksgiving dinner, pass the phone around: each person taps their name, sees their match, hides it and hands the phone on.

Your links stay saved on your device so you can resend a lost one, and you can save them all to a CSV file.

By default the generator looks for one big loop: Emma buys for Liam, Liam for Olivia, and so on until the last person buys for Emma. That lets you open gifts in a chain at the party, and it makes sure the exchange runs through the whole group. It also avoids two-way pairs, where two people simply swap gifts.

If your exclusions make a single loop impossible, it switches to a free draw that still follows every rule. You can turn either option off. Matches come from your browser's cryptographic random number generator, so every valid draw is equally likely.

Secret Santa isn't the only way to swap gifts. Two other formats, built with the same care:

• Gift exchange name draw: the same private draw, set up for family and friends, with its own saved list. Handy if you're running one draw for family and another for work.
• White elephant generator: nobody draws names. Everyone brings one gift, players open them in a random order, and they can steal from each other. The page runs the turns, counts steals and shows when a gift is frozen.