Secret Santa Generator
Draw Secret Santa pairs with exclusions.
Secret Santa Generator draws pairs so nobody gets themselves or anyone they are excluded from, using a derangement and a matching that proves when your exclusions make a draw impossible. It prints one hidden card per person. No names, emails or results ever leave your browser.
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Runs entirely on your device. No file or text you enter here is uploaded. How to verify it.
How to use Secret Santa Generator
- Type everyone taking part, one name per line.
- Add couples or households as exclusions so nobody draws their own partner.
- Draw, then print one slip per person or reveal the cards one at a time.
Questions about Secret Santa Generator
Can it email everybody their name?
No, and that is deliberate. Sending mail or hosting a private link needs a server, and a server means your list of names and pairings leaving the device. The alternatives here are printing one slip per person to fold and hand out, or revealing and copying a single card at a time into whatever messaging app you already use.
Can the organiser take part without seeing the whole draw?
Partly. Every card starts hidden and you can copy or print without revealing any of them, which is enough for most groups. But whoever has the page open can reveal any card, so if you want a properly blind draw, print the slips face down without reading them, or have somebody outside the group run it.
What does the single loop option do?
A draw with nobody giving to themselves is a derangement, and a derangement breaks into one or more closed loops. A single loop means following the chain from any name passes through everyone once and comes back, which rules out two people swapping with each other. If exclusions make one loop impossible the tool falls back to an ordinary derangement and tells you.
Why does it say the draw is impossible?
Because with those exclusions there really is no valid pairing, and it can be proved rather than guessed at. The usual culprit is a household nearly as large as the group: four people where three of them live together leaves the fourth as the only possible recipient for three givers. Add someone from outside or drop an exclusion.
Is every possible draw equally likely?
In single-loop mode, yes among the valid loops: an order that breaks a rule is thrown away whole and redrawn, which keeps the sampling even. The fallback matching used when a single loop cannot be found produces a valid draw but not a uniformly random one, so treat it as fair rather than mathematically unbiased.
Is Secret Santa Generator really free, with no limits?
Yes. There is no account, no daily cap, no file-size tier and no watermark, because there is no server cost to recover. The site is funded by clearly disclosed partner recommendations on the Partners page, never by metering the tools.
Are my files or text uploaded when I use Secret Santa Generator?
No. Everything is processed by JavaScript running in your browser, on your device. You can verify it: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and use the tool. You will see no request carrying your data — because there is nowhere for it to go.