Christmas Giveaway Wheel

By Nektarios Livitsanos · Updated October 12, 2026

Searches for "spin the wheel" peak every year in late December, and the weeks from Black Friday to New Year are full of giveaways. A Christmas giveaway wheel turns a list of names and a pile of prizes into a few seconds everyone can watch, whether the audience is a shop's customers, a stream's viewers, a class or an office.

This guide covers holiday ideas for each of them, the rules that keep a seasonal giveaway out of trouble, and how to set up the double giveaway wheel so one spin picks the winner and the prize together.

Why a wheel works so well at Christmas

Holiday giveaways usually have more than one prize: a main gift and a few smaller ones, or a different prize for every day of December. A normal name picker only tells you who won. The double wheel puts the names on the outer ring and the prizes on the inner ring, so the audience sees who won what in the same moment. That is the part people remember and share.

A prize you have several of goes in once with a quantity, such as Gift card x3. Every confirmed win lowers the number, and when the last copy is won the slice disappears. You never have to edit the list in the middle of the draw.

Ideas by audience

Shops and small businesses

• Black Friday warm-up. Run the giveaway in the week before Black Friday, when people are already looking, and draw on the Friday morning.
• Twelve days of Christmas. Twelve smaller prizes, one draw per day, announced at the same time each day. A simple way to give people a reason to come back.
• New Year thank you. A draw among customers or followers in the first week of January, when competition for attention is much lower.

Creators and streamers

• Holiday stream draw. Collect entries during the stream with a keyword, close the entry window, and spin live. The Twitch giveaway guide explains entry windows and the disclaimer Twitch requires.
• Comment giveaway on a Christmas video. Import the commenters with the YouTube Comment Picker and draw from the real list. See how to pick a YouTube comment winner.
• Subscriber milestone in December. A milestone plus the season gives you a natural reason for a bigger prize.

Classrooms

• Last day before the holidays. Put small rewards on the inner wheel, such as choosing the next song, first in line or a sticker, and the class names on the outer wheel.
• Advent countdown. One spin each school day in December, with the name removed after it is picked so everyone gets a turn before the break. The random name picker guide for teachers has more ways to use the wheel in class.

Offices and teams

• Office raffle at the Christmas party. Everyone's name on the outer wheel, the donated prizes on the inner wheel, one spin per prize.
• Order of opening gifts. Spin to decide who opens first, then keep spinning.

Set up the wheel, step by step

1. Open the Spin Wheel and type the entrants on the left, one name per line, or paste a list.
2. Type the prizes on the right. Use quantities for repeated prizes, for example Coffee voucher x5.
3. Decide whether winners leave the wheel. With the switch on, a confirmed winner is removed, so nobody wins twice.
4. Spin once and confirm. Confirm Winner saves the result to the winners list and uses up one copy of the prize. If a winner is not eligible, use Disqualify and spin again for that prize.
5. For many prizes at once, the multi-spin buttons run several spins in a row and confirm each result automatically, so check the lists first.
6. Save the results with Print/Save before you close the page.

If you run a draw every day, keep using the same browser. When you reopen the wheel it offers to continue with the same lists and winners, so the prize quantities keep counting down day after day.

For very large lists, hundreds of entries or more, Instant Draw picks all the winners in one click and is easier to follow than a long series of spins.

Rules that keep a holiday giveaway fair

Seasonal giveaways attract more entries, and more entries mean more questions afterwards. Write these down before you post:

• Who can enter, including age and country limits.
• How to enter and whether each person counts once.
• When entries close, with date, time and time zone. Holiday posts are often shared late, so be precise.
• What the prizes are and how many of each.
• When and how you draw, ideally live or recorded from start to finish.
• How winners are contacted and how long they have to reply before a backup winner is drawn.

Platform rules apply on top of that. Instagram, Facebook and TikTok each have their own requirements, covered in how to run a fair Instagram giveaway and how to run a Facebook or TikTok giveaway. The general checklist is in how to run a fair giveaway.

Timing

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a Christmas prize wheel?

Type the entrants on the left of the wheel and the prizes on the right, with quantities for repeated prizes. One spin then picks the winner and the prize together.

Can a shop require a purchase to enter?

It is risky, because paid entry to a chance draw can count as a lottery. Offer a free way to enter too, and check your local rules.

Can I use the wheel for Secret Santa?

Not for the pairing, because nothing stops a person drawing their own name. Use it for the office raffle or the order of opening gifts.

How do I run a giveaway every day of December?

Keep the same wheel in the same browser. It remembers the lists and winners when you come back, so you spin and confirm once a day.

Platform rules and local laws change, so check the current terms before you launch.

Related guides

• How to use a giveaway wheel with prizes: prize quantities, odds and running the double wheel live.
• How to run a fair giveaway: rules, entries you can check and a public draw, on any platform.
• How to run a Twitch giveaway: the required disclaimer, chat entries and a live draw.