Secret Santa Generator With Private Links

Two ways to run Secret Santa

Group mode is for exchanges where people join separately: an office, a school, a club, a family spread across several cities. The organizer sets a budget range, an exchange date, a draw date and optional notes, and then shares the invite link. Participants can add a wish link, interests, sizes and a note, which only their Secret Santa will see. After the draw, each person gets a private link that shows their match, that match's wish details and a deadline countdown.

Instant draw is for when you are all in one room, or one person is doing the drawing for everyone. Type the names, add any pairs who should not draw each other, and the tool produces the matches in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server in this mode, and you can show each result privately or copy private links yourself.

Setting up a group, step by step

1. Choose a group name, a budget range, the date of the gift exchange and the date the names will be drawn. Add notes if you like, such as "Gifts must be wrapped" or "Bring to the Friday lunch".
2. Share the invite link. Invitees open it, type a first name and optionally add wish information. You can set a maximum group size from 3 to 50. The default is 20.
3. Open your organizer link to see who has joined. You can remove a participant, add exclusion pairs, such as partners or siblings who already exchange gifts, and lock the group so nobody else can join.
4. Run the draw whenever you are ready. If you forget, the draw runs automatically the first time anyone opens the group after the draw date.
5. Each participant opens their private link to see their match. Only they can see it.

Save your organizer link and your own participant link somewhere safe. They are the only way back into your group, and because we collect no emails we cannot send them to you again.

How the draw stays fair and private

The draw is a derangement with exclusions: a pairing in which nobody draws themselves and nobody draws someone on their exclusion list. The tool searches for a valid arrangement using randomized matching, and when a valid draw exists it finds one. For groups of four or more it also avoids pairs who simply swap with each other, so the person you buy for is not the person buying for you. If the exclusions make a valid draw impossible, it says so, and you can relax a rule.

Each participant sees only their own match. The organizer cannot see the matches unless the organizer is also a participant, in which case they see only their own like everyone else. Private links include a long random token, and the server stores only a one-way hash of each token, so the stored data does not reveal who can open what. The tokens live in the part of the link after the "#", which browsers never send to a server as part of a page request; they are sent only in a request header when the page loads your own data.

One honest limit: because we host the service, the person who operates the website could in theory read stored matches. We do not look at them, and we keep as little as possible, but if you need absolute secrecy from everyone, use instant draw with slips of paper.

What you can do after the draw

After the draw you can read your match's wish link, interests and sizes, and open the gift finder with their interests and your budget already filled in, through the "Gift ideas for my match" button. You can send your match an anonymous one-way note, such as "Do you prefer dark or milk chocolate?" Your match sees the note but cannot tell who sent it, and replies are not possible, so the note is for questions the match can answer by updating their wish details. You can also send a note to the Santa who is buying for you, again anonymously, with no replies, so you can say "Please no scented candles".

The status page shows how many people have joined, how many days remain until the exchange, how many have added wish information and a few tips. A deadline countdown and a calendar file download let you add the exchange date to your phone, so nobody forgets.

Privacy and data we keep

We keep the minimum needed to run a group: the group name, budget, dates and notes; first names; optional wish links, interests, sizes and notes; the draw result; and any anonymous notes. We do not ask for email addresses or last names and we do not create accounts. Everything expires automatically 120 days after the group is created. The organizer can delete a group sooner at any time. To limit abuse, we count requests by a hashed version of your network address for a short time, and we cap field lengths and strip markup from everything that is entered. Read the details in our privacy policy.

Please use first names or nicknames, and do not enter home addresses or phone numbers in notes. Wish links should point to a store page or list, not to anything private.

Sharing the invite link

The share bar appears only on the invite link step, and it shares only the invite. It creates text like "Join our Secret Santa! Draw on Dec 1, budget $25", plus a link whose preview card shows the group name, date and budget. We never offer sharing for match or participant links, because they must stay private. If you share the invite publicly, anyone with the link can join until you lock the group or it reaches the size limit, so post it in a private chat rather than a public feed.

Ideas for a smoother exchange

Set a budget range that everyone can afford and say whether handmade gifts are welcome. Choose a draw date at least two weeks before the exchange so people can ship gifts. Ask people to add at least one wish link or interest, since the best Secret Santa gifts are the ones that are specific. Then send a reminder a week before the exchange. For gift ideas at every budget, see our Secret Santa gift ideas, and for a quick comparison with other swaps, read Secret Santa vs white elephant.