Secret Santa generator
Draw names for a gift exchange with private links or by passing one phone. No emails or account.
Your private links
Send each person only their own link. Copy or share every link before closing this page.
The draw stays in this page and is not saved. Links hide names from a casual glance; anyone with a link can read its result. They are not encrypted.
How to draw names for your gift exchange
- Enter 3–60 different names, one per line. Add a surname initial for people sharing a first name.
- Add exclusions for people who should not draw each other. Select both directions for couples; otherwise only one giver is blocked.
- Optionally enter an event name, budget, exchange date and a short shared note about gifts or meeting arrangements.
- Choose private links for a remote group, or pass the phone in person. Enable one shared circle for a single connected chain.
- Draw names and privately send each person their link. On one phone, reveal, hide and hand it to the next person.
Bring people together
- Arrange an office gift exchange without collecting colleagues’ email addresses.
- Include relatives in different cities by sending links in your messenger.
- Run a celebration with friends around one phone, without printing slips.
- Set a shared spending limit for a club or community group before the draw.
- Use a note to suggest handmade gifts, books or a common meeting place.
How this serverless draw works
This secret santa generator shuffles candidates with Web Crypto and uses backtracking to satisfy exclusions. Everyone gives and receives once, never to themselves. The organiser sees sharing buttons, not pairs, but can open the links or confirm “Show all pairs”. This is interface privacy. Results stay in memory: no draw data is saved in localStorage or uploaded.
Six people and two excluded couples
Anna, Ben, Clara, David, Emma and Felix join. Exclude Anna ↔ Ben and Clara ↔ David. One valid shared circle is Anna → Clara → Ben → Emma → David → Felix → Anna. Every person receives once and neither couple draws its partner. Your actual result will vary.
Questions about the draw
Are the private links encrypted?
No. UTF-8 JSON is obscured with an eight-byte XOR key included in the link, then encoded as base64url. This hides names from a casual preview, but anyone with the link can decode it. Do not treat it as secure storage.
Does the fragment reach the server?
The part after # is not sent in the HTTP request. The page reads it locally. Browser history, extensions, scripts on the page and anyone receiving the full link can still access it.
What happens if the exclusions cannot be satisfied?
The tool reports a person involved in the conflict. Remove or revise exclusions. If the bounded search reaches its limit, it says so instead of claiming no solution exists.
What does one shared circle mean?
Everyone belongs to a single chain that returns to its starting person. Without this option, separate smaller circles are allowed. The option is off initially.
Can I recover a closed organiser page?
No. Copy or share every link before leaving. A departure warning is enabled while links remain unsent; browsers may suppress it. Already shared links work independently.
Do participants need email addresses or accounts?
No. Send links through a channel you already use, or pass one device. The tool has no delivery service and does not verify who opens a link.
Can I change names after drawing?
Start a new draw for changes and tell everyone to discard old links. Old links cannot be revoked: their results are embedded in the address.