What is Secret Santa?
Secret Santa is a gift draw: everyone on the list draws one other person and gets them a gift. Only the Santa knows who a gift is from – until it is handed over, and sometimes even longer.
7 Secret Santa rules
- Set a budget. One amount for everyone, e.g. “up to $25”, so nobody feels awkward. On santa.haus the organizer types the budget when setting up the list, and everyone on the list sees it. How much to spend?
- Agree when the draw is and when the gifts are. The form offers three ways to draw: the “Draw the letters” button, which only the organizer has, “When the majority decides” (by itself once more than half of the list votes) and “On a chosen day” (by itself at the hour you pick). If the names stay hidden (“The letter now, the name later” or “A number instead of the name”), also pick the day the gift sack opens – best the day you open the gifts together. How many days are left, and what to do when.
- Nobody draws themselves. The draw puts everyone in one circle: each person buys for the next one, the last for the first. So nobody gets their own letter, and no two people draw each other.
- Everyone writes a letter to Santa. What they like, their size, what they'd rather not get – then Santa doesn't have to guess. After its first save a letter can still be changed for 2 minutes, then it stays as it is. How to write a good one: Letter to Santa online.
- Who has whom is a secret. Only its Santa sees the letter they drew, nobody else on the list does. The exception is “Only me” lists: there is no draw, and every letter goes to the organizer, e.g. when children write to Santa.
- Questions only through the page. After the draw, Santa can write in “Ask your nice child”, e.g. about a size or a color, and the person they drew won't find out who's asking. There are no messages on “Only me” lists.
- Open the gifts together. With “A number instead of the name” the parcel carries a number, not a name, and when the gift sack opens everyone gets the number of their own parcel. At the end, guess who was whose Santa – the page won't tell. Ideas for the evening: Secret Santa with friends.
When is the draw?
When you click “Draw the letters”
Only you have the button. Click it once everyone has joined.
When the majority decides
Everyone can vote. With 3 votes of 5, the draw happens by itself.
On a chosen day
The draw happens by itself on the day and at the hour you pick. Nobody clicks anything.
A number instead of the name
You write the number on the parcel. When the gift sack opens, everyone gets the number of their own parcel.
Secret Santa online, step by step
- Start a list. A name for the list, your name, a budget and how the draw happens. No account and no e-mail.
- Send the link to your chat or show the QR code. Everyone joins with just their name and writes a letter to Santa; a list holds up to 100 people.
- The draw and the letters. After the draw everyone reads the letter they drew, with the budget, on their own page and gets the gift. Nobody can join after the draw.
When things change
Until the draw, people can join through the link. The organizer can take someone off the list with “Remove” next to their name, but only before the draw. The draw needs at least 3 people: with fewer, the vote and the chosen day wait until someone joins.
Pairs who shouldn't draw each other, e.g. spouses, are picked by the organizer on their page in the “Who doesn't draw whom” block, which is there until the draw. Exclusions: who and how many.
After the draw nobody joins or is removed, and the draw can't be repeated. So check that everyone is on the list before it happens.
Ways to play Secret Santa
- Funny Secret Santa: joke gifts: the gift has to make people laugh, with a low budget.
- White Elephant rules and the dice game: no draw – everyone brings a gift, and the gifts get stolen or go to the die.
- Virtual Secret Santa: a draw online and gifts sent by post.
- Secret Santa with friends: the link in your chat, a vote for the draw and numbered parcels until the party.
- Family Secret Santa: one list for the whole family, relatives far away too.
- Secret Santa at work: the link in your team chat or the QR code in a meeting.
- Secret Santa in class: a class or a kindergarten draws without paper slips.
- Secret Santa gift ideas: gift ideas by budget.
- Secret Santa questionnaire: questions that help write the letter to Santa.
- Draw names on one phone: everyone at one table, no list and no links.
Prefer paper? Print name slips to draw from a hat.