Kris Kindle for the office, the school or the whole clan: draw names and send everyone their own link
Type in the names, tap a spending limit and a handover day, then WhatsApp each person a link that shows only the name they are buying for. Nobody signs up or hands over an email address, and the draw is never saved anywhere: every pairing lives inside its own link, so there is nothing to clear away after Christmas.
1 · Who's in?
Who is drawing?
Wishlist (optional)
Wishlist (optional)
Wishlist (optional)
People with the same household name never draw each other.
Or paste a list: one name per line, or separated by commas.
2 · Budget, date and rules
Before this moment the reveal page shows a countdown instead of the name. This is a soft lock only: the name is already inside the link, so someone who knows how to read it could peek earlier.
Who can't pick whom?
Couples, siblings or last year's pairs. It works both ways: neither will pick the other.
How the presents go round
Avoid last year's pairs
Paste last year's organiser backup link. Nobody will be given the same person as last year.
3 · Send everyone their name
How private is it? In the normal mode the organiser's backup link and the group link can decode every pair; the scrambling only stops casual peeking and is not encryption. Use organiser-blind mode if even the organiser shouldn't be able to see them.
Nothing is stored on any server: the draw lives only in the links, so there is nothing to delete afterwards.
4 · Print
Drawing names from a hat, or want everything on paper? These are made in your browser and need no draw.
Draw the names first, then print the slips.
Number draw: everyone brings a wrapped present
For a gift exchange without names: each person brings one wrapped present, the presents get numbers, and everyone takes home the number they draw. Nobody gets their own present.
Classroom Secret Santa
Three steps
1
Who is in?
Type the names or paste them from the group chat, then pick office, family, friends or class for a suggested limit. If you are organising and playing, tick “I take part in the draw myself”: then no one, you included, can see the pairs.
2
Limit, day, wish lists
Tap €10, €20 or €30 and a day (the last day before the break, 24 or 25 December), or type your own. Say who must not pick whom: couples, siblings who already swap presents, last year's pair. One-way blocks work too. Everyone can add up to five wishes, each with a link or a size.
3
Send the links
Each person gets a link plus a ready-made message to paste. Tick “Sent” as you go so nobody is forgotten. Everyone in the one room? Print folded slips or pass a single phone round.
Setting the limit for a Kris Kindle
No Irish survey of what a Kris Kindle present costs is published, so there is no “usual” figure to quote. The advice that holds everywhere is this: agree the amount up front and pick one that suits the person with the tightest budget, including part-time staff, students and anyone on one income.
The €10, €20 and €30 buttons are shortcuts and nothing more. Family groups often go a bit higher than office groups, and a class or club a bit lower, which is why “class” starts from the smallest button. Any figure can be typed in.
When the Kris Kindle happens in 2026
Offices tend to swap gifts at the Christmas party or on the last working day before the break. In 2026 Christmas Day is a Friday and St Stephen's Day a Saturday, so Wednesday 23 December is the last full working day for most; plenty of workplaces will have the party earlier in the week of 14 December or the week after.
Families usually draw well ahead, in November or early December, so that there is time to shop and to post a present to someone abroad. A timed reveal helps here: set the day and the link shows a countdown until then, and you can add the reveal time to your calendar as an .ics file.
What other draw tools do differently
Many draw sites collect an email address for every player and send the result by email, and some ask the organiser to sign in. That means gathering addresses first and hoping nothing lands in junk mail.
Others keep the draw on their own server for weeks. Here there is nothing to delete, because the pairing is written into the link itself.
What cannot be done without a server is telling you whether someone has opened their link. The “Sent” ticks stand in for that and stay on your own device.
Questions about Kris Kindle
- What does Kris Kindle mean, and is it the same as Secret Santa?
- Yes, it is the Irish name for the same game: each person draws one name and buys one present for that person, usually within an agreed limit. The word comes from the German Christkind, the Christ child, and is also heard as Kris Kringle.
- Do people need an account or an email address?
- No. There is no account, no email address and no phone number. The draw runs in your browser.
- Can the organiser play without seeing who has whom?
- Yes. Tick “I take part in the draw myself” and no organiser link or group link is made, so only the person who receives a link knows that pairing. If you are not playing you get a backup link that shows every pair; keep it to yourself.
- How do I stop couples and siblings drawing each other?
- Add them under the exclusions. A block can run both ways or one way only, which suits a pair where only one of them bought for the other last year.
- How much should a Kris Kindle present cost?
- The group decides before the draw; there is no published Irish norm. Tap €10, €20 or €30, or type another amount, and it appears on every link.
- Someone loses their link. Do we start again?
- No. The organiser opens the backup link and resends that one link. If the organiser is playing there is no backup link, so a new draw is the only fix.
- Can family abroad join in?
- Yes. Each person opens their own link wherever they are. Agree a deadline and whether presents are posted or handed over at Christmas, and add a postal address per person if you want one on the link.
- Is the link secure?
- The pairing is scrambled so it cannot be read at a glance, but it is not encryption. Send each link only to the person it is for.