These Secret Santa Rules Help Ensure That No One Gets a Gift They Hate
Having a Secret Santa gift exchange is a great way for large families, groups of friends, and coworkers to give one another holiday gifts without having to spend lots of money on buying them for everyone. While it's easy enough to organize a Secret Santa, setting some basic Secret Santa rules makes it a smoother process that's a lot more fun.
What's great about setting Secret Santa rules is that finding a gift for someone (even if you don't know them that well) becomes more of a treasure hunt than an aimless search. Setting simple guidelines like a budget and providing participant wish lists can help guide everyone in the right direction — it doesn't have to just be a gag gift exchange!
The holidays will be here before you know it, so here are the Secret Santa rules to follow to help ensure that your gift exchange is a success.
How to Put Together a Secret Santa
Invite people to participate in your Secret Santa exchange. When you have your group, everyone decides when the gift exchange will be. Ideally, the gifts will be exchanged and opened in person, but if this isn't possible, gifts can be exchanged through the mail and opened on a group video call.
Set the Secret Santa rules. All participants must agree on a gift budget, which could be between $10 and $25. Everyone should also make a short, 2- or 3-item wish list to help their Secret Santa find something they'd like.
Everyone randomly picks their Secret Santa recipient — see the following section for ideas of how to do this.
All participants shop for their Secret Santa in the weeks leading up to their gift exchange. Make sure to allow time to send gifts through the mail if people are participating remotely.
The Secret Santa participants hold their gift exchange, which could be a holiday party, lunch break, or video call, depending on the group. One by one, each participant opens their gift and tries to guess who their Secret Santa is, until each gift-giver's identity is revealed.
How to Assign Secret Santa Recipients
There are a few different ways to assign Secret Santa recipients to each member of your party. If all participants can be in the same place at once, writing each name on a piece of paper and having members randomly pick a name out of a jar is the simplest way.
However, if you're organizing a Secret Santa with remote participants (or it's tough to get everyone in the same place at once), there are several free Secret Santa name generators you can use that'll keep the selections a secret from everybody. These are two free options that are both comprehensive and easy to use:
Drawnames
Drawnames is a Secret Santa name generator that just requires an email address for signing up. The organizer can enter the names of all participants and add/remove names later if needed.
From here, you can set gift exclusions if you want — meaning, you can avoid having two people in your party give each other gifts for whatever reason. You can also set a date for your gift exchange, name your group, and give the page a description.
You can send out invitations in a few different ways: Email, website link, text message, WhatsApp, or Messenger. Once people have their invite to the site, they can randomly select their Secret Santa recipient — the organizer will know they've selected their person but won't know who they were assigned.
Finally, participants can make their wish list through the site. If they want a specific type of gift, they can add it here to help give their Secret Santa an idea of what to buy. Drawnames also sends emails every step of the way with the current status of your Secret Santa event, so you (and your participants) don't lose sight of your gifting mission.
Elfster
If you're organizing a fully remote gift exchange, choosing Elfster makes it easy. It displays the Secret Santa rules very clearly for participants. This free name generator also lets you decide whether you are simply orchestrating the Secret Santa or participating in it.
To start, name your group, set a gift-exchange date, a sign-up deadline, and a gift budget — you can change these later. For remote Secret Santas, you can choose to exchange gifts by mail, which will prompt participants to provide their mailing address. You can also add a "virtual hangout link" if you want to make a Zoom meeting or Google Hangout in advance.
You can add participants via email or website link, create a wish list for present ideas, and view the event dashboard to track who's been invited. Once you have a list of at least three participants, you can set gifting exclusions and randomly draw a name. Everyone will be able to view their Secret Santa's wish list on their dashboard page, along with how much time they have left to buy (and mail) their gift.
Once you sign up, Elfster sends weekly update emails that include the RSVP deadline and the date of your gift exchange.
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