Add everyone's name, keep couples apart if you like, and let each person see only their own match.
Reveal one by one: each person taps their own name, reads their match and taps Hide before passing the screen on.
The organiser can join in too. As long as people only tap their own name, the organiser learns their own match and nothing else. If somebody misses the reveal, they tap their name later; nothing is lost until you close the page or press Draw again.
A Secret Santa among friends is more fun when couples do not end up buying for each other. Write Anna, Ben on a line and the generator will never pair them, in either direction. A line with three or more names, such as one household, keeps all of them apart from each other. You can add as many lines as you need.
Too many rules can make a draw impossible. In a group of four where everyone is excluded from everyone, nobody has anyone left to buy for. If that happens the generator tells you, and removing one rule is usually enough.
With One big circle on, the names form a single chain: Anna buys for Chloe, Chloe buys for David, and so on until the last person buys for Anna. Nobody ends up in a closed pair where two people simply swap gifts, which makes the exchange feel more like a group event. Turn it off for a plain random draw in which small loops are allowed. Either way, every person gives exactly one gift and receives exactly one.
Every possible arrangement that follows your rules has the same chance. The names are shuffled with your browser's cryptographically secure random generator, the same method our random team generator uses, and the page simply draws again whenever a shuffle breaks a rule. Our fairness page explains the method.
Names stay on your own device. Nothing is uploaded and no email addresses are needed, so you can run a draw for a family, a class or an office without collecting anyone's details.
Prefer a game where gifts can be stolen? Our white elephant generator draws the turn order and prints the rules. Running a holiday giveaway for your followers instead? Our guide to the Christmas giveaway wheel covers rules, prizes and drawing winners live.
Yes. Any group of three or more works, odd or even, because everyone gives one gift and receives one gift.
No. The generator never gives anyone their own name, so there is no need to put names back in the hat.
The page does not send emails. Use Copy to paste the full list into a message for the organiser, or let everyone reveal their own match on one screen.
Add an initial or a nickname, such as Anna K and Anna M, so each line is different. The generator asks you to fix duplicates before drawing.
There is no fixed limit. Groups of a few hundred draw in a moment on a normal phone.