How to do a Secret Santa online without emails or sign-ups

Why skip the sign-ups

Most Secret Santa apps want every player's email address, and some want everyone to make an account. In a family or a group of friends, that's where it stalls: one person never finds the invitation, another signs up twice, and someone's grandmother doesn't have an email address at all.

A draw that works by link avoids all of that. The organizer types the names, gets one private link per person, and sends each link the way that group already talks: a text, a WhatsApp message, a Slack DM. The Secret Santa Generator works that way, and nobody has to sign up.

Before you start

Have these ready and the draw takes about a minute:

• Everyone's name, written the way the group knows them. If two people share a name, add an initial: "Sam B" and "Sam K".
• Who shouldn't draw each other. Usually couples, sometimes a whole household. People who live together tend to shop together, so drawing each other spoils the surprise.
• A spending limit. Pick a number and say it once. "Around $30" causes more trouble than "$30".
• The exchange date, so everyone knows when gifts are due.

Draw names, step by step

1. Under Who's taking part, type one name per line, from 3 to 50 people.
2. Under Who shouldn't draw each other, put each couple or household on its own line, like Alex & Sam, or Priya & Dev & Ana for a family of three. Commas, plus signs and the word "and" work too.
3. Fill in the Spending limit, the Exchange date and a Note for everyone, for example where and when gifts are opened.
4. Press Draw names.

If the groups make a fair draw impossible, the form says so before anything is drawn. In a group of four where three people are in one household, those three can only draw the fourth person, so there's no way to match everyone. Split the household line, or add more people.

Send each person their own link

The next page is your organizer page. Bookmark it straight away: its address is the only way back to the links, and only you have it.

Each person has a row with a Copy message button. It copies a short message with their link, ready to paste into a text or chat:

Hi Alex! Here's your Secret Santa link for Family Christmas. Open it and press Reveal to see who you're buying for.

On a phone, Share opens your phone's share sheet instead.

Send each link in a private message to the person it's for. Don't paste every link into a group chat, because anyone who opens a link can reveal that person's match.

What each person sees

When someone opens their link, they see their name and a Reveal button. Pressing it shows who they're buying for, the spending limit, the exchange date and your note.

Below that, they can write a wishlist: sizes, ideas, links, things to avoid. Only their own Secret Santa sees it, on their page under the name they drew. People can change it any time, so it's worth checking again before you shop.

Keep track of who has revealed

Your organizer page ticks off each person once they've pressed Reveal, and shows when someone has written a wishlist. It never shows who has whom, not even to you. If the exchange is a week away and someone still hasn't revealed, send them their link again.

Opening a link doesn't count as revealing. Chat apps load links to build a preview, and that would tick everyone off before they'd seen a thing, so only pressing Reveal counts.

When something goes wrong

• Someone lost their link. Open your organizer page and copy it again.
• You're the organizer and you're playing too. Open only your own link. You can't see the matches on the organizer page, so the draw is as much a surprise for you as anyone.
• Someone opened the wrong link. If they didn't press Reveal, no harm done. If they did, the fairest fix is a new draw.
• Someone dropped out or joined late. Make a new draw with the new list, send the new links, and delete the old draw from its organizer page. Matches can't be changed one at a time without someone learning who has whom.

How long it's kept

The names, matches and wishlists are deleted 30 days after the exchange date, or 90 days after the draw if you didn't give a date. You can delete the draw sooner from the organizer page.