Draw names out of a hat when the family is spread out

In Secret Santa everyone buys one present for one other person, and the name stays secret. Since 1998 Granny Moira has run the Campbell family Secret Santa in Inverness with the same tweed hat. The names go in on folded paper, the hat goes round the table after Sunday lunch, and whoever picks their own name puts it back. Now half of the 12 Campbells live in other cities and are never at that table before Christmas.

For the last two years an aunt pulled names out of the hat for whoever was missing, so she knew three of the results. This year Granny Moira’s grandson Fraser swaps the slips for drawing lots online. He creates the group, enters the £20 limit and the date of the family tea, Wednesday 23 December, and adds the 12 Campbells.

Each Campbell has a personal link from the moment they are added. Wichtlify can email it where Fraser has stored an address, and he shares the rest himself in the family chat. Only Fraser needs an account. Everyone else opens their link in the browser, with no account and no app; the app is there for iPhone and Android.

Granny’s rule is that couples buy for each other anyway, so before the draw Fraser saves exclusions to keep partners apart. An exclusion is a pair who must not draw each other. If the exclusions left no possible draw, Wichtlify would tell him before drawing. On Saturday 28 November he draws, and nobody draws themselves.

Fraser takes part like everyone else and learns only whom he is buying for. In the group he can see who has opened their link and who has not entered wishes yet, but never who drew whom.

Wichtlify is made for the secret kind of draw, where each person gets one name and keeps it to themselves. Picking one winner or a running order in front of everyone is an open draw, which it does not do; the open-versus-secret comparison sets the two side by side.

If your names are for colleagues or friends rather than family, a Secret Santa name generator sets up budget, date and wish lists in one go.

With a hat, a name that comes out wrong goes back in, and whoever draws for the absent cousins sees their results. Online, the draw happens once and in secret, and each person sees only their own result, wherever they live.

If an uncle can’t come after the draw, the free emergency repair asks who steps into his place, and everyone else keeps their person. Next December Fraser can repeat the group for free, and the draw leaves out this year’s pairs, which the hat never managed.

Families who also mark 6 December can set up a separate St Nicholas Secret Santa for that day.

You do not need Pro for an ordinary family draw. If you want more, add Wichtlify Pro: €4.99 a year, renews automatically, bought in the iOS or Android app and valid for all the groups on your account. With it, someone who drew a cousin they barely know can send anonymous questions and ask what they would like, without revealing who is asking.