How to Pull Off the Ultimate Secret Santa Gift Swap This Holiday Season
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Every year, we thank the invention of Secret Santa for sparing our wallets too much grief during the holiday season. However, Secret Santa comes with challenges of its own. How do you organize and communicate with your participants? How do you pass out assignments? How do you make sure that your two coworkers who used to be friends but now definitely aren't speaking won't be matched with each other? Check out the gallery ahead for the best apps on the market that will allow you handle your Secret Santa assignments with as little drama, stress, and confusion as possible.
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Elfster Secret Santa Generator
With the Elfster Secret Santa Generator, planning this year's gift exchange seriously couldn't be easier. This app lets you set a budget and helps you manage everything from wish lists to gift shopping. Best of all: this app is free!
Available for iOS and Android
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Santa's Secret Keeper
Santa's Secret Keeper is perfect for avoiding any spoilers this year. With this free app, you can simply add all of your participants, add in the details your participants need to know about price range and instructions, and the app will pass out assignments by email.
Available for iOS and Android
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Secret Santa — Gift Exchange
If you're all about the aesthetics, Secret Santa — Gift Exchange just might be the cutest gift swap app out there. This free app lets you customize your email stationary and theme, as well as select contacts from your address book and create wish lists.
Available for iOS
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Simple Secret Santa Generator
Make this year's gift exchange much easier on yourself with the Simple Secret Santa Generator. With this free app, you can simply share a link so participants can add themselves, and you'll get notified once all of your participants have verified their match.
Available for iOS and Android
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Secret Santa Gift Generator
Probably the simplest and easiest app on this list is the Secret Santa Gift Generator. This free app lets you create an event, add your participants, and send out emails with assignments in just minutes.
Available for iOS
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Secret Santa Matcher
With the sophisticated and user-friendly Secret Santa Matcher, you can rest assured that there aren't any mix-ups in your gift exchange. Along with keeping track of all of your participants, this app allows you to add constraints, such as keeping roommates from selecting each other in the exchange.
Available for iOS
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Secret Santa Service: A Secret Santa Match Generator
Secret Santa Service: A Secret Santa Match Generator offers a sleek and user-friendly design that allows you distribute assignments without accidentally picking yourself (or having someone get left out!). This app also gives you the option of upgrading to the elite version for five or more participants to take part.
Available for iOS
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Secret Santa 22: Gift Exchange
With Secret Santa 22: Gift Exchange, you can connect with your participants no matter their preferred platform — whether that's WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, email, or SMS. Along with supplying your friends and family with the gift delivery date, the fixed budget, and a message, you can also keep certain people from selecting each other with this free app.
Available for iOS and Android
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Giftster
With Giftster, you can do more than just exchange presents — you can make sure both you and your participants end up with exactly the gifts you want. With this free wish list registry, you, your friends, and your family can all make your own gift wish lists and then add a Secret Santa draw to your group, taking all the stress out of gift buying.
Available for iOS and Android
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Secret Santa
With the option of both the free lite app or the upgrade to the pro version, Secret Santa allows you to create groups and add in as many participants as you'd like. You can set exclusions and restrictions, and participants are then notified of their match via SMS.
Available for Android