How our Secret Santa works
Ho-ho-ho, traveller! Pull up a chair, grab a mandarin and let the elves explain. It’s easier than untangling a string of Christmas lights, we promise.
1. Knock-knock. Who’s there? Just you, and your email
Forget passwords. Nobody has ever remembered one in December anyway. Type your email address and our elves will send you a magic link. Click it and you’re in. No forms, no marketing newsletters, no selling your data to anyone, not even to the Grinch. He asked. Twice.
2. Gather your gang
You have two ways to get the party started:
- Host a party. You get a secret code. Share it with your friends, your family, your colleagues, or that cousin who never replies in the group chat.
- Join a party. A friend gave you a secret code? Type it in and you’re on the list. Capital letters, small letters, whatever. The elves aren’t picky.
Everybody who joined appears in the participant list, so you can see who’s in and who’s still “thinking about it”.
3. Cold feet? No problem
Changed your mind? You can quit until the dice are rolled. Just press “I changed my mind and wanna quit…” and slip away quietly. Nobody will judge you. (The elves will, a little. But they judge everyone.)
4. Roll the dice!
When everybody’s in, the host presses the big button. The magic happens:
- Every participant is randomly assigned one friend to give a gift to.
- Nobody can join after this, so latecomers have to talk to the elf. Rules are rules.
- The dice are rolled and cannot be un-rolled.
Gentle warning: pressing it before your friends have joined is how one ends up buying a gift for oneself. (Don’t worry, the elves wouldn’t let that happen. But it would be funny.)
5. Shhh! It’s a secret
You’ll see only one name: the lucky person who will receive your gift. Nobody knows who you got, and nobody will know who got them. You are Santa Claus, but an anonymous one. Think of yourself as a ninja in a red coat.
Keep the name to yourself. Do not whisper it. Do not hint. Do not “accidentally” buy the exact thing they mentioned last Tuesday. Well, maybe a little.
6. Enjoy the holidays
Wrap it, hide it, sneak it under the tree. Then watch the faces, listen to the gasps and pretend you have no idea who the gift came from.
That’s it! Six steps, one dice roll and zero awkward “who got whom” spreadsheets.
Odd number of people? No problem
People often think Secret Santa needs pairs. It doesn’t, because nobody is matched with anybody. Everyone simply gets one person to give a gift to, never themselves. The gifts go round the group in a loop (or a few loops), so every person gives one gift and gets one gift, however many of you there are.
Three people? Fine. Seven? Fine. Forty-one colleagues and a dog? Fine, but the dog needs an email address. You need at least two people, and with exactly two you’ll be giving gifts to each other, so try to act surprised. At the other end, a party fits up to 100 people. Beyond that, the elves suggest splitting into a few parties.
In bigger groups, two people can sometimes end up giving gifts to each other too. That’s not a glitch: every draw is equally likely, which is exactly why nobody can guess who got whom.
Questions people ask
Is it free? Yes. No ads, no premium elves, no “upgrade to see your match”. If you’d like to thank the elves, there’s a Buy me a coffee link at the bottom of the page. Totally optional.
Do I need a password? No. You sign in with your email address and a magic link. Nothing to remember, nothing to leak.
Can friends in other cities join? Of course. Everything happens online: share the party code, and anyone anywhere can join. How the gifts travel is between you and the post office.
Can the host see who got whom? No. The host is a Santa Claus like everybody else and sees only their own name. Nobody, host included, can peek at the full list.
Can I leave after the dice are rolled? No. Once the dice are rolled, someone is counting on your gift. You can leave any time before that. The host can’t leave their own party, but they can delete it before the roll.
What emails will you send me? Only the useful ones: your magic link, an invitation if a host invites you by email, a note when the dice are rolled, and confirmations if you change your email or delete your account. No newsletters, no marketing, ever.
How do I delete my account? Open My Profile and ask to delete it. We’ll email you a link to confirm. If you were already in a party where the dice were rolled, your name stays in that party, so whoever drew you still knows who to buy a gift for.
— Houston, we have a gift! I repeat, we have a gift!
— Copy that, Santa. Proceed to eat mandarins.