Organise Secret Santa for the family

Only the organiser needs an account. Everyone else opens their own link in the browser, on a computer or a phone, with no account and no app. There is also the Secret Santa app for iPhone and Android.

That includes relatives without a smartphone. A grandparent can be shown the link on a tablet or computer, dictate wishes to a grandchild and open their own link after the draw. If part of the family lives far away, it all works the same as for Secret Santa online.

The Millers spend Christmas Day at Grandma Rose and Grandpa Joe’s in Norwich. Emma and James drive over from Bristol with their three children, Emma’s sister comes up from London, and the eight are rarely in one room before then. Eight people each buying for everyone else would mean 56 presents, so the family has always drawn names.

This year Emma sets it up on 15 November: eight names, a budget of £20 (or €20) a present and Christmas Day, 25 December, as the date. Everyone gets their own link from her straight away and adds a few wishes. On 1 December she runs the draw.

Last Christmas the names went into a mug at Sunday lunch. Grandpa Joe drew Grandma Rose three years running, and a teenager once pulled out her own name and kept quiet about it.

This time Emma adds two exclusions, both ways: Grandma and Grandpa can’t draw each other, and neither can she and James. There’s no list of who has whom, not even for Emma, so she finds out only who she’s buying for, like everyone else.

The youngest two, aged seven and four, can’t manage a link on their own. James opens theirs with them and types in the seven-year-old’s wish list (“anything with a dinosaur on it”), so whoever draws him isn’t left hunting for gift ideas for a seven-year-old. James helps with their shopping too, so Emma stays in the dark.

Next Christmas Emma repeats the group, and the draw skips this year’s pairs on its own. Grandpa Joe will have to buy for someone new. All of this is free.

The hardest part is often the suggestion itself, because nobody wants to sound stingy. This message gives the budget and the dates up front, so nobody has to ask. Fill in the brackets and send it.

Grandpa Joe wants none of it, not even a link. For him there is the printed Secret Santa card, one of the extras in Wichtlify Pro. You don’t need Pro for an ordinary family Secret Santa. If you want more, Pro costs €4.99 a year, renews automatically, is bought in the iOS or Android app and covers all the groups on your account.

Emma prints the card folded, with “For Joe” on the front and, inside, the name he drew, the budget, the date and a QR code to his own page with the wish list. Whoever prints the card can see the name inside, so Emma folds it without looking and posts it to him sealed.

In Secret Santa each person gives one present to one other person, and the big wishes run alongside. So that nothing turns up twice, there is Wantivo, a separate wish-list app by the same makers. On a shared family wish list relatives reserve what they’re buying.