Organise Secret Santa with kids

Only the organiser needs an account. Children and parents open their own link in the browser, on a phone or a computer, with no account and no app. The app exists for iPhone and Android.

A four-year-old can’t read yet. A parent opens the link with them on the sofa and types in their one wish. A ten-year-old opens their own link, on a parent’s phone if need be.

A child’s link exists from the moment they are added, so wishes can be written before the draw. The draw needs at least three children and takes up to 100 on the web. For a whole class, see Secret Santa at school, and send a short letter to parents first.

Every Boxing Day the whole family ends up at Nain’s, Welsh for Grandma’s, in Cardiff. Every year each aunt bought something for every child. This year Ffion Hughes suggests one present per child instead. Her three children take part with her sister’s two and a cousin, Cerys: six children aged 4 to 11 in three households.

On 7 November Ffion creates the group and adds the six children, with a budget of £8 (or €8) a present and Boxing Day as the date. She sends each child’s link to their parents, and the children add their wishes. By late November two wish lists are still empty. Ffion can see whose, though not who drew whom, and nudges the family chat before she draws the names.

With slips from a hat, sooner or later a child draws their own brother or sister, and by the second attempt somebody has read over a shoulder. Small children don’t keep a secret with everyone watching.

Ffion sets siblings apart as exclusions, both ways: her three can’t draw each other, and neither can her sister’s two, Elin and Osian. Without Cerys there would be no possible draw, and Wichtlify would say so before drawing. With Cerys in the group, it works.

Wichtlify works like a Secret Santa generator that never shows the whole result: each link shows only that child’s person, and there is no list of pairs, not even for Ffion. Next Christmas she repeats the group, and the draw skips this year’s pairs.

Among children what counts is that nobody feels left out, so everyone gets the same small budget. For primary-school age, £5 to £10, or €5 to €10, works well. With ages from four to eleven, as in Ffion’s group, £8 (or €8) is the middle ground, and for the youngest a parent does the shopping.

Good Secret Santa gifts for kids are small, sturdy and fair rather than expensive. For the very youngest, pocket-money presents under £5 (or €5) are a good place to look, while toys with small parts stay out of reach of anyone under three.

Printed Secret Santa cards are one of the extras in Wichtlify Pro. Each child gets a folded card with their first name on the front and, inside, the name they drew, the budget, the date and a QR code to their own link. A parent can tuck it into an advent calendar. Whoever prints the cards can see the names inside, so fold them without looking.

You don’t need Pro for an ordinary 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.

In Secret Santa each child gives one small present. So that grandparents and godparents don’t buy the same big toy twice, there is Wantivo, a separate wish-list app by the same makers. They can reserve presents from a Christmas wish list.