Secret Noël is a free Secret Santa generator for your holiday gift exchange. It works right in your browser, on a phone or a computer: name your group, add the participants, set a budget and draw names in a few minutes. No account or password, for the organizer or anyone else, and no app to install.
The draw is random and respects your rules: couples and people in the same household never draw each other, and you can add any other exclusion you need. Even the organizer never sees who drew whom, so the organizer can play too.
Everyone gets a wish list, a way to send short anonymous messages to their giftee or their Secret Santa, and an animated gift box to open when it is time to discover their person. People without email are covered too: you can run a Secret Santa without email with a shared link, a QR code, printable cards or a one-phone hat mode.
It works for a family Christmas, an office party or a group of friends, from 3 to 5,000 people, in English or in French. And once the holidays are over, everything is deleted automatically 30 days after the exchange.
Why use an online Secret Santa generator?
Pulling names from a hat is charming until someone draws their own name, two spouses draw each other, or a cousin in another city has to be phoned for the results. An online draw fixes all of that in one go, and nobody has to keep the secret on paper.
Secret Noël also handles the little extras that usually turn into a group chat marathon: who is in, what the budget is, what your giftee actually wants, and reminders before the exchange.
- Free, no account, works in any browser
- Households and exclusions respected automatically
- The organizer never sees the results
- Wish lists with photo, link, price and favourites
- Anonymous two-way messages, filtered to stay friendly
- Printable cards with a personal code and a one-phone hat mode
- Everything deleted automatically 30 days after the exchange
Secret Santa, White Elephant or another gift exchange game?
Families and offices across the US and Canada mix and match their holiday traditions. Some draw names weeks ahead for a thoughtful Secret Santa gift, others play White Elephant or a Yankee swap at the party, and many do both: a Secret Santa for the main gift and a quick stealing game for laughs.
Secret Noël takes care of the trickiest part, the secret name draw, so nobody draws themselves and couples never draw each other. For the party itself, our guide to Christmas gift exchange ideas compares 8 games, from White Elephant to the dice game and the Left-Right story, with printable rules.
Frequently asked questions
Is Secret Noël really free?
Yes. Creating a group, drawing names, wish lists, messages, invitations and printable cards are all free, with no credit card and no account to create.
Do participants need to create an account?
No. Nobody creates an account or a password. Each person gets a personal link (or a personal code on a printable card) to see their draw, their wish list and their messages.
Can I make sure couples do not draw each other?
Yes. Put people who live together in the same household and they will never draw each other. You can also add individual exclusions, for example between two siblings who already exchange gifts.
Can the organizer see who drew whom?
No. The draw is done at random by the server and the organizer never sees the results, even if they take part. Nobody can ever see who drew them.
What if some people do not have an email address?
Email is optional. You can share a link, show a QR code or print cards with a personal code. You can also use hat mode, where everyone draws on a single phone passed from hand to hand.
How many people can join a Secret Santa group?
A group can have from 3 to 5,000 participants, so it works for a small family as well as a large workplace.
What happens to our data after Christmas?
Data is deleted automatically 30 days after the exchange date, or 120 days after the group was created if you did not set a date. The organizer can also delete everything at any time. There is no account, no tracking cookie, and nothing is sold.
Can we reuse our group next year?
Yes. The Do it again next year option copies your group and avoids repeating the same pairs as the previous draw.
Does it work in French too?
Yes. Secret Noël is bilingual. The French version is called Pige de Noël, so a mixed English and French group can each use their own language.