Secret Santa is more fun when every match is a surprise
Without exclusions, partners, family members, or people who drew each other last year may be matched again, making the draw feel more predictable and less surprising.
drawnames lets Secret Santa organizers choose to set exclusions to prevent unwanted matches, then handles the final draw automatically.
Designed to make every drawn name a surprise
Supports multiple exclusions
Hides exclusions by default
Avoids repeat matches from previous celebrations
Demo draw with exclusions
Ready to start your Secret Santa?
What are our fans saying?
Stefanie
Love how it offers exclusions from the last year. It has made our secret santa game easy to manage.
Denise
I LOVE that my manually added exclusions carried over this year (in addition to excluding the person drawn last year)! Great time saving feature. I appreciate the improvements you strive to make each year. The wish list feature is very user friendly and "plays nice" with Amazon, as well with other links and text.
Rena
This is our second year using it, and I love that I was able to add someone before all the names were drawn. I appreciate it that there were exclusions and that it automatically excludes you from drawing someone you’ve had in a previous year so that you get a new person overall super easy to use.
Randy
I love that we can specify exceptions, in case some people would feel uncomfortable to draw someone they barely know.
Other helpful Secret Santa features
Never draw your own name for Secret Santa
Secret Santa for large Groups
Draw names with uneven numbers
Common questions and answers
You can set exclusions when creating the celebration. The exclusions can be changed later, as long as at least four group members haven’t yet drawn a name. To do this, go to the group page, select 'Manage settings', and choose 'Manage exclusions'.
You can set exclusions while you’re creating the celebration. The exclusions can be changed later on, as long as at least 4 group members haven’t yet drawn a name. If you want to exclude partners, make sure you set that for both names. You can enter exclusions for a group of at least 4 people.
That depends on the size of the group. In a large group, you can set several exclusions per person. An additional list of choices will then appear next to the name after the first exclusion is set.
By default, exclusions are only visible to the organizer. If the organizer wants everyone in the group to see the list of exclusions, this can be changed on the group page by selecting 'Manage settings' and then choosing 'Exclusions visibility'.
Everyone in the celebration can only see the name they have drawn. After the celebration date has passed, the organizer can view the full list of drawn names on the group page by selecting 'Manage settings' and then choosing 'View drawn names'.