How to organise a free Secret Santa draw online
With the JapalTools Random draw you can do the Secret Santa for your family, class or office without meeting up: nobody gets themselves, you can rule out pairs, and each person finds out by email who they’re buying for, without the organiser seeing it.
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Open the draw with Secret Santa selected
Open Secret Santa in the Random draw: the tool opens with Secret Santa already selected under “What to draw”.
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Enter who’s taking part
Type each person’s name and email into the table, so they get their notice. If you already have the list, you can also paste it (one person per line) or load an Excel or CSV file with names and emails.
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Draw and send the notices
Press Run the draw and then Email the result. Each person gets an email from support@japaltools.com with the name of the person they’re buying for. The pairs are never shown on screen, so you can take part too.
Rules you can set
- Nobody gets themselves: the draw always prevents it, without you doing anything.
- “Can’t give to”: in that column of the table, type the name or email of the person they mustn’t get, for example their partner. You can add several, separated by commas.
- Avoid mutual pairs: if Ana gives to Luis, Luis won’t give to Ana.
Good to know
- Add everyone’s email: anyone without an email gets no notice; only for that person can you see who they give to, so you can tell them yourself.
- Organiser’s email: if you enter yours, you get a notice of the draw (with the pairs hidden, only with the list of participants) and participants’ replies come to you.
- Certificate and video for WhatsApp: you can download a PDF certificate with the draw date and hash, plus an animated video to share in your WhatsApp or Telegram group.
Your list isn’t stored: the draw runs in your own browser. Only when you press “Email the result” are the addresses and the text of each notice sent, to deliver them from support@japaltools.com; JapalTools doesn’t keep them.