Draw your Secret Santa names
Add the names, say who should not draw whom, and draw. Everything happens on this page: no emails, no accounts.
Worked example below. Enter your own names to draw.
Worked example: six people, with Ava & Ben and Dev & Ella as couples, drawn with no swaps on draw code HQ7K-3PZD.
Example draw for 6 people
Rules: no swaps · 2 couples or households kept apart. Spending limit $30 · Exchange Friday, December 18, 2026.
Your rules allow 64 different draws; this one was picked at random, with every one equally likely.
Secret check passed: nobody can work out anyone else’s match from their own.
| Secret Santa | Buys for |
|---|---|
| Ava | Ella |
| Ben | Finn |
| Chloe | Ava |
| Dev | Ben |
| Ella | Chloe |
| Finn | Dev |
In a live draw the matches stay hidden: each person taps their own name to see who they are buying for, or you print fold-over slips.
| Group | No swaps | One big circle | Any valid draw |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 people | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 people | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| 5 people | 24 | 24 | 44 |
| 6 people | 160 | 120 | 265 |
| 7 people | 1,140 | 720 | 1,854 |
| 8 people | 8,988 | 5,040 | 14,833 |
| 9 people | 80,864 | 40,320 | 133,496 |
| 10 people | 809,856 | 362,880 | 1,334,961 |
Every rule you add removes some of these draws. Three people can only be drawn two ways, so each person can work out the whole draw from their own match.
Private by design: names, rules, limits and dates stay in this page’s memory. They are never uploaded, stored, added to the page address or sent with analytics, and this generator is masked from session recordings.
See personalized Christmas gift ideas →How the Secret Santa draw works
Add one name per line, from three people up to sixty. The generator gives everyone exactly one person to buy for, and everyone is bought for exactly once. Nobody ever draws themselves, and nobody draws anyone you have kept apart: a couple, the people in one household, or a pair you do not want to repeat from last year.
Then pick a draw style. “No two people buy for each other” (the default) rules out swaps, where two people simply trade gifts and can guess each other. “One big circle” links everyone into a single loop, so each person buys for the next one along. “Any valid draw” also allows swaps, which leaves tight rules the most room.
For up to eight people the generator lists every draw that fits your rules, tells you how many there are and picks one with equal odds. For bigger groups it shuffles the names until a draw fits every rule, which also gives every valid draw an equal chance. If the rules split a big group so tightly that a fitting shuffle is too rare (several teams that must not draw each other, say), it builds a draw that fits and then reshuffles it within the rules many times, and the result says so.
Worked example: Ava, Ben, Chloe, Dev, Ella and Finn, with Ava and Ben as one couple and Dev and Ella as another. With no swaps, 64 different draws fit those rules. Draw code HQ7K-3PZD gives Ava → Ella, Ben → Finn, Chloe → Ava, Dev → Ben, Ella → Chloe and Finn → Dev: two loops of three, with no couple and no swap.
Keeping it secret without emails
There are no accounts and no addresses to collect. After the draw, pass the phone around: each person taps their own name, confirms it is them, sees who they are buying for and hides it again before handing the phone on. The list shows how many people have looked, never who drew whom.
Prefer paper? Print fold-over slips, with each person’s name on the outside and their match inside the fold. If you are organizing but not taking part, the organizer view lists every match with a ready-made message to copy and send to each person privately.
Every draw has an eight-character organizer’s code, shown in the organizer view rather than on the pass-the-phone screen. Enter the same names, rules and draw style with that code to recreate exactly the same matches, for example if the slips go missing; the order you type the names in does not matter. Keep the code to yourself, because anyone with it and the list could rebuild the draw.
Small groups give secrets away. Three people can only be drawn two ways, so each of them can work out every match from their own. For groups of up to eight, the generator checks whether anyone could work out another person’s match from their own and warns you when they could.
When no draw fits the rules
Some rule sets cannot work. With three people and one couple, someone would have to buy for their own partner. If one person is kept apart from everyone else, nobody is left for them to buy for. The generator names the problem it found instead of quietly bending a rule.
The usual fixes are to add a person, remove one rule or switch the draw style to “Any valid draw”. One big circle is the strictest style, because no couple may sit next to each other anywhere in the loop. The table under the generator shows how many draws are possible for each group size before any rules are added.
Planning the exchange: limit, date and gift
Add a spending limit and the exchange date to put them on every slip and message, so everyone works to the same number and the same day. Not sure what limit to set? The gift amount calculator suggests holiday ranges by how close you are.
With an exchange date set, the result also shows when to order a custom canvas portrait so it arrives in time. It uses the same delivery estimate PortraitGift shows in its cart (the measured order-to-carrier production range plus the carrier-published regional transit range), counted back in business days from the exchange, and aims for the Friday before a weekend exchange. Public holidays, customs and artwork revisions are not included, so leave extra time.
Running an office exchange? Browse coworker gift ideas. Short on time in December? See last-minute personalized Christmas gifts. And to write the card, try the gift message generator.
How it works
- Enter everyone taking part, one name per line (commas also separate names).
- Optionally list couples or households who should not draw each other, pairs to avoid from last year, a spending limit and the exchange date.
- Choose a draw style and press Draw names. Pass the phone so each person reveals their own match, print fold-over slips, or copy private messages from the organizer view.
Frequently asked questions
How does a Secret Santa generator work?
You enter everyone’s names and the generator gives each person one other person to buy a gift for, so everyone gives one gift and receives one. This one also keeps couples and households apart, can avoid last year’s pairs and lets each person reveal their own match privately.
Can I do a Secret Santa draw without emails or signing up?
Yes. Everything happens on this page: there is no account, nothing to install and no email addresses to collect. Pass one phone around so each person reveals their own match, print fold-over slips, or send each person a private message copied from the organizer view.
How do I stop couples from drawing each other?
Put each couple or household on its own line under Couples and households, with the names separated by commas, for example Ava, Ben. Nobody on a line is drawn for anyone else on the same line, in either direction.
What is the difference between no swaps and one big circle?
No swaps means two people never buy for each other, but the draw can still split into smaller loops of three or more. One big circle links everyone into a single loop, so each person buys for the next one along. Any valid draw allows swaps as well.
What is the minimum number of people for Secret Santa?
Three, but with three people there are only two possible draws, so each person can work out the whole draw from their own match. Bigger groups keep more secrets, though couples and other rules can still give a match away in a small group; for groups of up to eight the generator checks whether anyone could work out another person’s match from their own and warns you.
Can I redo the draw, or get it back if the slips are lost?
Press Redraw with new matches for a fresh draw; if anyone has already looked, the generator asks you to press it again first. To get an earlier draw back, open Recreate an earlier draw, enter the eight-character organizer’s code from the organizer view and use the same names, rules and draw style: the matches come out exactly the same, whatever order the names are typed in.
Is the draw really random?
Yes. Every new draw gets a fresh organizer’s code from your browser’s built-in random number generator. For up to eight people the generator lists every draw that fits your rules and picks one with equal odds; for bigger groups it shuffles until a draw fits, which keeps the odds equal. If the rules split a big group so tightly that a fitting shuffle is too rare, it builds a draw that fits and reshuffles it within the rules many times instead, and the result says when that happened.
Are the names saved or shared?
No. Names, rules, spending limits and dates stay in this page’s memory while it is open. They are never uploaded, stored, put in the page address or sent to analytics, and the generator is masked from session recordings. Analytics record only fixed categories, such as the draw style, the group-size range, whether rules were used, which field needed correcting and which button or link was used, never a name, match, amount or date.
See personalized Christmas gift ideas →