How to draw names for Secret Santa online, step by step

To draw names for Secret Santa online, agree the budget and the date, choose one tool, invite everyone privately, add only the exclusions you need, check that everyone has joined, and then run the draw. Each person should see only their own recipient.

Slips of paper in a bowl work when everyone sits at the same table. Once a relative lives far away, a couple should not draw each other or young children take part, drawing by hand gets harder: someone picks their own name, the draw is repeated, and the person running it knows too much. An online draw handles those cases and keeps the wishlists in one place.

Most tools follow the same order. This sequence avoids the usual problems:

1. Agree the budget per gift, whether it includes postage, and the day you will open the gifts.
2. Choose the tool before you invite anyone. Switching once people have joined is harder.
3. Create the group and share the invitation privately, for example in the family WhatsApp group.
4. Add any children, and agree who buys their gifts if they only receive.
5. Add the exclusions you need, such as couples, and nothing more.
6. Check that everyone has joined, then run the draw.
7. Ask everyone to add two or three wishlist ideas at different prices.

• Copy a family invitation with the budget and dates

Any tool can shuffle names. Before you invite anyone, look for these six guarantees on the tool’s own pages:

• Nobody draws themselves. A good tool makes this impossible, rather than leaving you to draw again.
• Every exclusion is respected. If the rules leave no valid result, the tool says so instead of quietly ignoring one.
• The result is complete or there is none: nobody is left without a giver or a recipient.
• Each person sees only their own recipient, privately, never in the group chat.
• The organizer cannot see everyone’s matches, unless your group has agreed that they should.
• There is a clear rule for late joiners and people who leave, because changing the list means a new draw.

• Set partner exclusions the draw can satisfy
• How the SantaTogether generator handles these six points

Each way suits a different group. Generator sites vary, so look for the last column’s checks in the help pages of the one you pick.

We read each tool’s own website, help pages and app store listings on 4 October 2026. We did not create accounts or run test draws in the other tools. “Not stated” means we did not find it on their official pages, not that the feature is missing. We make SantaTogether, so read the table with that in mind.

• Compare five Secret Santa apps in more detail

DrawNames suits a one-off draw: no account, invitations by email, text message or WhatsApp, and a wishlist for each person. Elfster suits groups that want more rules, such as keeping children from drawing adults or avoiding last year’s matches, and wishlists with items from any store.

If the organizer should not know the result, check that first. Giftster, a family wishlist service, says not even the organizer knows who drew whom. Look for the same statement before you rely on any generator site.

SantaTogether is built for one case: a family exchange with children. Adults sign in with Google. A parent adds each child as a profile, so children never sign in and need no email or phone. When a child only receives, an adult must accept the extra gift before the draw can run.

The draw checks gift commitments and exclusions together and refuses to run if no complete result exists, instead of quietly dropping a rule. The organizer sees only their own recipients and those of the children they manage. The core exchange, the draw and wishlists are free, with no display adverts; gift idea pages can include Amazon affiliate links, which the site discloses in its footer.

The limits: there is no iOS or Android app, every adult needs a Google account, and an exchange holds up to 50 participants. It does not avoid last year’s matches, collect addresses or send gifts. Optional reminders are not switched on. When email is available, adults receive essential exchange updates, never their recipient names. For a one-off office draw with no children, a no-sign-up tool may be simpler. If your draw includes children, create a family exchange and follow the steps above.

• See how a family exchange works

Alex, Sam, Blair, Casey and Drew are drawing names. Alex and Sam are a couple, so the family agrees that neither should draw the other. That needs two exclusions: Alex cannot give to Sam, and Sam cannot give to Alex. One exclusion blocks only one direction.

Before drawing, the organizer checks that all five have joined. Every giver still has at least three possible recipients, and the rules allow 24 different complete results. The table shows one of them. It is fictional; in a real draw, each person sees only their own row.

Two days after the draw, Blair’s brother Jo asks to join. Adding a person changes who can give to whom, so it means a new draw. In SantaTogether, nobody can join a drawn exchange until the organizer resets the draw, and a reset replaces everyone’s recipient. Removing someone from an active draw cancels it in the same way.

Before resetting, the organizer asks privately whether anyone has already bought a gift, without asking who they drew. The family then keeps the five-person draw or resets it and draws again with six. An odd number would work too, because Secret Santa does not need pairs.

• Can you do Secret Santa with an odd number?

With children, agree before the draw who buys the extra gift for a child who only receives: one gift is missing, and an adult has to volunteer to cover it. Keeping a parent and their own children apart is a useful starting point, but in a small group it can make the draw impossible.

• Work out who buys the extra gifts for children

A clear invitation and one last check of the list before the draw prevent most of these:

• Posting the invitation link in an open group or on social media.
• Drawing before everyone has joined.
• Adding exclusions just in case, until the draw is impossible or predictable.
• Choosing a tool whose key features, such as exclusions, are paid, and finding out too late.