Office Secret Santa draw

Add the coworkers who have agreed to take part and block any pairs who must not draw each other. The calculator displays the full assignment list for the organizer. Each participant gives once and receives once, nobody draws themselves, and each listed exclusion applies in both directions. A link to the result reveals the entire draw to anyone who opens it.

The coworker gift guide covers choosing something appropriate for the group. For a smaller spending cap, use our small gifts for coworkers guide. This page assigns recipients; the organizer still handles invitations, the budget and individual messages.

Confirm the roster before drawing

Enter one name per line, or separate names with commas or semicolons. This tool accepts 3–100 participants. Each label can contain up to 80 characters. It trims surrounding spaces and checks duplicates without regard to capitalization: Ava and ava count as the same label and trigger an error.

Give coworkers with the same first name distinct labels, such as Sam Finance and Sam Design. These labels appear in the results and in the shareable address, so short recognizable names are enough. Avoid adding contact details or explanations about someone's participation to a label.

The three-person minimum is a design choice, not a claim that a two-person exchange is impossible. Two people can simply swap gifts. The 100-person maximum keeps this browser tool manageable; it is not a recommendation about an office event's size. Compare the displayed headcount with the confirmed roster before sending assignments.

Block pairs using exact labels

Write a pair such as Ava - Ben on its own line. Neither person can draw the other. Add further pairs on separate lines; a repeated valid pair does not create an extra restriction. Labels must match participants, although capitalization may differ.

Exclusion lines contain names and a separator only. Ava - Ben (same household) fails because the extra explanation changes the name being matched. The calculator also rejects unknown names, incomplete lines, ambiguous pairs and self-exclusions. Self-draws are already forbidden. Hyphenated participant labels work when there is one clear match for both ends of the line.

If the restrictions leave no complete assignment, the tool reports that result instead of showing a partial list. A different seed will not solve that conflict. Check whether a restriction was entered against the wrong person, whether someone is missing from the roster, or whether the group can relax a block before proceeding.

Check the seeded result

An empty seed field generates a value in the browser and retains it in the form. Keep the same ordered names, exclusions and seed to reproduce the assignment. Replacing or clearing the seed requests another draw, but a different seed is not guaranteed to produce different pairs. The available combinations may be limited.

The generator tries seeded shuffles, followed by exact matching if the shuffles fail to find a valid result. Every successful result satisfies the restrictions. The fallback is not a guarantee that every possible complete assignment has the same probability. An organizer can also try several seeds, so this tool does not prove that a draw was selected without preference.

The six-person example with Ava, Ben, Cara, Dan, Eli and Fay uses office2026: Ava draws Cara, Ben draws Eli, Cara draws Ben, Dan draws Ava, Eli draws Fay and Fay draws Dan. The five-person q4-team example assigns Noah to Omar, Mia to Zoe, Leo to Mia, Zoe to Noah and Omar to Leo. With Ava, Ben, Cara and Dan, block Ava - Ben and use team1: Ava draws Dan, Ben draws Cara, Cara draws Ava and Dan draws Ben.

Distribute individual assignments

Keep the complete result with the organizer and send each coworker their own recipient. Include the agreed spending cap and exchange date in that separate message. This page does not send messages, maintain wish lists or hide the other rows when someone opens a link.

Names, exclusions and the seed appear in the address after #. MDN's fragment documentation explains that browsers process this part without including it in the page request. A copied link still exposes those details, and browser history or bookmarks may keep it. The seed is not a password.

If someone joins or withdraws after distribution, review a new complete draw and tell affected participants which assignment to follow. Editing this page does not update addresses already sent to other people. Reopen the intended result and check it before distributing the final messages.