Secret Santa generator: a race that draws the names

How do you do a Secret Santa draw online?

Paste everyone in the group and press the button. Each person gets a private link that plays them a race, and whoever wins it is who they buy for. Nobody draws their own name, everyone gives and receives once, and nobody sees anybody else's pairing. Want the whole chain in the open instead? Untick one box and the group watches one race together.

Drawing names from a hat goes wrong in the same three ways every year: someone draws themselves, the last person is stuck with whoever is left, and whoever ran it knows half the pairings. The Santa race fixes all three.

Paste the group and you get one link per person to send privately: by text, WhatsApp or email, whichever you already use. Opening it plays a race between everyone else in the group, and the winner is who that person buys for. The organizer never sees who has whom, and there are no accounts or email addresses to collect.

How the gift chain works

A chain guarantees the two things a Secret Santa draw needs: nobody draws their own name, and everybody gives and receives exactly once. A hat cannot promise either of those without a redraw.

• 1st place buys for 2nd
• 2nd buys for 3rd, and so on down the field
• Last place buys for 1st, which closes the loop

Because it is one closed loop, nobody ends up in a pair that just swaps gifts with each other — every gift goes one step along the chain.

Keeping it a surprise

Each link names only one pairing: its owner's. The pairings are dealt in your browser and never stored on a server, so they stay between each person and their link. Send each person their own link, and don't open anyone else's.

Replaying a link always lands on the same winner, so nobody can rerun theirs until they get someone they like.

Or run it in the open

Some groups would rather watch it together. Untick "keep it secret" and the whole group watches one race on a video call or from the group chat link: the finishing order is the gift chain, and every pairing is listed at the finish.

Group size

Up to 18 people free, which covers a family, a team, or a small office. A bigger office party — up to 30 — runs on the paid plan.

How it works

Put it on your own site

Teachers put it on a class page, leagues on their league site, streamers on a giveaway page. Paste this code where you want the picker; your visitors use it free, with no sign-up.

Questions

More ways to decide