About

This is a pet project borne out of necessity. Several years ago, my family started drawing names for Christmas while we were all gathered at Thanksgiving.

So, in 2017, after forgetting to put names in the hat a couple of times and having to start over each time, my brother suggested that I build an app to handle the name drawing process. With only a few days left until Thanksgiving, I whipped up the app in its most basic form. Creating a group, adding names, setting conflicts, and drawing were feature-complete just in time. In the subsequent years, I've added many features to the app, like text message invitations and reminders, wishlists, and many design improvements.

What's with the upside-down Santa hat, you ask? Well, we always put all the names in a Santa hat to draw from. So, it's been our logo ever since!

Secret Santa Hat can be used for almost any occasion where names need to be paired together. Our Secret Santa generator algorithm ensures every name is assigned while respecting any conflicts that are configured for each participant. If your group plays White Elephant instead, where everyone brings one gift and picks or steals in turn, the app draws the running order rather than matching people up. The same game goes by different names depending on where you grew up - a Yankee Swap in New England, a Dirty Santa across much of the South, and a Pollyanna around Philadelphia for the name-drawing kind. There is more on organizing a gift exchange of any kind, and on running an office Secret Santa for a team, if either is what brought you here.

Have a group project? Use our app to pair people up! You can use our free app to randomly assign almost anything to anything else!

No account or email address is required! If you do have your group's email addresses, sending everyone their own link by email is free and needs no upgrade. Premium groups can send the same links by text message or WhatsApp instead. Everyone can also add their individual wishlists, with photos, to help the gift giver with some ideas. Finally, after drawing a name, each person can choose to be notified when their drawn name updates their wishlist.

Secret Santa Hat installs to your home screen like an app. Once it is installed, the name you drew and their wishlist stay readable even with no connection, and a wishlist change made offline is saved and synced as soon as you are back online.