Secret Santa Generator
Draw Secret Santa pairings in your browser and send each person a private reveal link — nothing is saved anywhere.
A Secret Santa draw is a small piece of combinatorics with a social problem attached. The maths is easy — shuffle the names so that everyone gives to exactly one person, receives from exactly one person, and nobody draws themselves (a derangement, if you want the technical word). The social problem is secrecy: on paper it is solved by a hat and folded slips, but a group scattered across group chats and time zones has no hat. This generator does the shuffle locally in your browser, then turns each pairing into a personal reveal link you can message to its owner.
Enter the group, draw once, and send each person their own reveal link. The pairing is encoded in the link itself — anyone holding a link can open it — and this site keeps no copy, so a lost link cannot be recovered. Drawing names for something simpler? Try the random picker, or split the group into teams with the random team generator.
🎁 A Secret Santa assignment is waiting
This link holds one person’s pairing. Make sure nobody is looking over your shoulder, then tap to reveal it.
Only your pairing is in this link — nobody else’s. This site stored nothing, so keep the link if you might need it again.
Quick answers
How does a Secret Santa generator keep the pairings secret?
This generator draws the pairings in your browser, stores nothing, and gives each person a personal reveal link that shows only their own pairing — and only after a tap, so it is not visible at a glance.
The pairing is encoded inside the link itself (in the part after the #), so whoever holds a link can open it. Send each link privately to its owner, and never share the organiser’s overview table, which lists every pairing. Because nothing is stored, a lost link cannot be recovered — the draw has to be run again.
Can I stop two people from drawing each other in Secret Santa?
Yes. Add exclusion pairs, one per line, such as “Ana - Ben” to stop Ana being assigned Ben. Exclusions are one-way, so add “Ben - Ana” as well if the pair should be blocked in both directions.
The generator shuffles repeatedly (up to 800 attempts) until it finds an arrangement where nobody draws themselves and no exclusion is broken. With too many exclusions for the group size, no valid arrangement may exist — the tool then says so instead of breaking a rule, and you can remove an exclusion and draw again.
Can the organiser cheat or re-draw a Secret Santa?
This tool cannot prove an organiser did not re-draw — no tool that stores nothing can offer that proof. What it does ensure is that each participant only sees their own pairing.
If proof matters to your group, draw live on a video call with the screen shared, or cross-check afterwards: in any honest draw every name appears exactly once as a giver and exactly once as a receiver. This generator will never produce a pairing that breaks that rule, gives someone themselves, or ignores an exclusion.
How to use
- Type the participants, one name per line — between 2 and 50 people. Duplicate names are flagged, so add a surname initial if two people genuinely share a name.
- Optionally add an event name (it is only used to label the links) and any exclusion pairs, one per line as “Ana - Ben”, meaning Ana must not be assigned Ben.
- Click Draw pairings. You get an organiser’s overview table plus one reveal link per person.
- Send each person only their own link, privately. Do not screenshot or forward the overview table — it contains every pairing.
- Each recipient opens their link and taps to reveal who they are buying for. Nobody else’s pairing is shown.
About this tool
Exclusions are the part most draws get wrong. Couples who should not draw each other, last year’s pairing you do not want to repeat, a manager who should not be assigned their own report — add them as exclusion pairs, one per line, in the form “Ana - Ben”, meaning Ana must not be assigned Ben. Exclusions here are one-way: Ana not drawing Ben says nothing about Ben drawing Ana, so add the reverse line too if you want the pair blocked both ways. The generator retries the shuffle up to 800 times against your rules; if no valid arrangement turns up, it tells you plainly instead of handing out a pairing that breaks a rule, and you can loosen an exclusion and draw again.
Be clear-eyed about what the reveal links are. The pairing is encoded in the link itself, readable by anyone who holds it — that is the price of a tool that keeps no copy. Send each link privately, to its owner only, and do not post the organiser’s overview table anywhere: it contains every pairing at once. The flip side of keeping no copy is that a lost link is gone for good. There is nothing to reset and nobody to email; the organiser simply runs a fresh draw.
One honesty note, because Secret Santa tools often overclaim: a private link stops other participants from seeing your pairing, but it cannot prove the organiser did not re-draw a few times before sending the links out. If your group cares about that, have the organiser draw live on a video call, or agree that everyone will compare notes afterwards — a valid draw always has each name exactly once on each side, which anyone can check. Everything on this page runs on your device: no names are uploaded, stored or tracked.
Frequently asked questions
Is my group’s information stored anywhere?
No. The draw happens entirely in your browser. There is no account, no server copy and no history. Once you close the tab, the pairings exist only in the reveal links you sent out.
Someone lost their reveal link. Can you recover it?
No — and that is the direct cost of storing nothing. There is no database to look the pairing up in. The organiser’s overview on the original results screen is the only other copy; if that is gone too, the only option is to run a fresh draw and send new links.
Who can see a pairing from a reveal link?
Anyone who has the link. The pairing is encoded in the link itself rather than fetched from a server, which is why the tool can work without storing anything — but it also means a forwarded link forwards the secret. Send each link only to its owner, in a private message.
How do exclusions work — are they one-way or both ways?
One-way. A line “Ana - Ben” only stops Ana being assigned Ben; Ben can still be assigned Ana. If a pair should not draw each other at all (partners, for example), add both lines: “Ana - Ben” and “Ben - Ana”.
The tool says no valid draw was found. What now?
Your exclusions rule out every possible arrangement — common in small groups where one person is excluded from several others, or where a pair is blocked both ways in a group of three. Remove or relax an exclusion and draw again. The tool will never quietly break a rule to force a result.
Can the organiser see everyone’s pairing?
Yes. The organiser’s overview table shows the full draw, because the organiser needs it to send the right link to the right person. That is also why the overview must never be screenshotted or shared with the group. The tool cannot prove the organiser did not re-draw before sending the links — see the note above the tool for how groups usually handle that.
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