Rooted in tradition
The story of drawnames began in 2001, when Arjan, founder of drawnames, set out to preserve his family’s gift-giving tradition. As family members moved away from home, gathering everyone in one place to draw names became challenging.
Arjan teamed up with Rob, co-founder of drawnames, to create a free and simple solution for drawing names online, which soon found its way to friends, relatives, and other communities facing the same challenge.
Arjan teamed up with Rob, co-founder of drawnames, to create a free and simple solution for drawing names online, which soon found its way to friends, relatives, and other communities facing the same challenge.
Our mission
Our mission is to become the go-to place for families, friends, colleagues, classmates, and communities around the world who want to exchange gifts and bring joy to the people they care about.
At drawnames, we believe that the joy of gifting should never be overshadowed by the stress of organizing. We are here to take the "work" out of organizing gift exchanges and finding the perfect gift.
Gift giving should strengthen connections, not create extra work. Yet organizing a gift exchange often involves coordinating participants, drawing names, managing wish lists, collecting gift preferences, and finding the right gift across multiple tools and conversations.
drawnames brings these moments together in one place, making it easier for everyone involved to focus less on logistics and more on the joy of giving.
At drawnames, we believe that the joy of gifting should never be overshadowed by the stress of organizing. We are here to take the "work" out of organizing gift exchanges and finding the perfect gift.
Gift giving should strengthen connections, not create extra work. Yet organizing a gift exchange often involves coordinating participants, drawing names, managing wish lists, collecting gift preferences, and finding the right gift across multiple tools and conversations.
drawnames brings these moments together in one place, making it easier for everyone involved to focus less on logistics and more on the joy of giving.
25 years of bringing loved ones together
With Dutch roots and over 25 years of bringing people together through gift exchanges, drawnames has grown from a simple Secret Santa tool into a platform used by more than 40 million people across more than 20 countries.
Today, the drawnames team continues to build on that original family idea by helping families and friends around the world stay connected and making every gift exchange easier to organize, more personal, and more enjoyable.
Today, the drawnames team continues to build on that original family idea by helping families and friends around the world stay connected and making every gift exchange easier to organize, more personal, and more enjoyable.
Trusted by families, friends, and colleagues
Over the years, drawnames has become part of countless traditions and celebrations. Some of the most popular include:
● Families celebrating across different households and countries● Friends organizing holiday exchanges and special occasions
● Colleagues planning workplace gift exchanges
● Teachers and parents coordinating classroom celebrations
● Clubs, teams, and communities hosting group gifting events
Why millions use drawnames to create magic moments?
To spend less time organizing and more time enjoying the magic of gift giving.
Fair, secret, effortless
drawnames makes sure nobody draws their own name, keeps every match secret, even from the organizer, and allows groups to set exclusions, draw names with an odd number of participants, draw names remotely or organize a live draw when everyone is together.
Wish lists that simplify gifting
Everyone can create and manage wish lists, add gifts from any website, share ideas for children and families, ask anonymous questions, set a gift budget, and mark gifts as purchased to avoid duplicates.
More celebrating, less organizing
Organizers can easily add or remove participants after the draw, create groups without requiring everyone to have an account, share invitations through any messaging app or communication channel, and rely on automatic reminders.
For gift exchanges big and small
From small family traditions to Secret Santa events with hundreds of participants, every drawnames feature is designed around real gifting experiences.
The future of gift giving
We're always exploring new ways to make gift exchanges more enjoyable, more personal, and easier to organize.
Many of the improvements we've made over the years have been inspired by the people who use drawnames, and that continues to guide us today. By listening to our community and evolving alongside changing gifting traditions, we aim to make every gift exchange a little more magical than the last.
Creating Magic Moments™
Many of the improvements we've made over the years have been inspired by the people who use drawnames, and that continues to guide us today. By listening to our community and evolving alongside changing gifting traditions, we aim to make every gift exchange a little more magical than the last.
Creating Magic Moments™