We're shaking things up this holiday season with some grab bag-style gift giving. Don't worry, you won't need a Santa hat to draw your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers' names. This is the 21st Century after all! Keep your festivities fun and your friends on their toes with these unexpected Christmas gift name drawing ideas. Or, keep things simple with our handy name generator.
Who needs Santa's list when you can make your own!
Quick Christmas Gift Exchange Pair Generator
With this handy widget, your gift-giving assignments are made easier than Santa's speedy Christmas morning travel. Input each of the names in your group, separated by a comma, and click on "create list." The widget will randomly pair up people to evenly distribute a gift partner for each person.
It's the kind of holiday magic that only Christmas can produce!
Festive & Fun Name Drawing Ideas
While drawing names out of a hat or bowl is simple and effective, there are far more exciting ways to draw names for a Christmas gift exchange. These are some of our favorites to get everyone in the gift-giving mood.
Pin the Tail on the Gift
A fun game that will get the holiday season started right, this method is suitable for exchanges where the participants aren't anonymous.
- Using a posterboard placed on the wall, write the name of each person participating in the exchange.
- Choose the first person to play and blindfold them. Then spin them around a few times and lead to the posterboard.
- The person then "pins the tail" (or puts a sticky note) somewhere on the board. Whichever name it lands closest to is the person they buy a gift for!
Related: 29 Secret Santa Themes Even Holiday Scrooges Will Love
Gift Tree
If you want to allow participants to choose who they partner with while also getting everyone into the holiday spirit, a gift tree can be a good idea.
- Place a Christmas tree in a common area, such as the break room for a workplace or the entryway for a family gathering. On the branches, hang "ornaments" made out of paper featuring one name per ornament. To make things a little smoother and easier for the giver, on the back of the ornament can be items the recipient would enjoy or hobbies they love.
- Allow participants to peruse the tree and grab one ornament. Depending on the personality of your group, this could be a mad dash with everyone or a sedate one at a time.
Stocking Selections
Like the ornament gift tree, but with more anonymity, have each participant write their name on a piece of paper. Then, if you so desire, have each participant write down three things they enjoy doing, shows or movies they enjoy, or any other hobbies and interests — just not specific gifts.
Place all the names in a stocking and have each person draw a slip throughout the day or over the course of a few days.
The Santa Assignment
Dressed as Santa, an elf, a reindeer, or even just wearing a holiday hat, enter the room with a bag full of participants' names. This is a variation of pulling names out of a bag that takes the moment to a more festive deck-the-halls-with-Christmas-spirit level.
- Allow each person to choose a name from the bag — this is the person they buy gifts for.
- If your goal is to get everyone into the holiday spirit, "Santa" can hand out candy canes or even toss confetti after each selection.
Pump up the merry mood in your gift exchange room with some holiday jams like these Christmas rock songs or these Christmas songs we love to hate.
Oracle Ornaments
Santa's busy seeing you when you're sleeping and knowing when you're awake, so he doesn't have the time to whip out a gift exchange list. Let the oracle ornaments do the picking instead.
This "put your hand in the hat and pick a name" style activity puts a funny spin on the classic concept.
- Order or thrift enough blank, fillable ornaments to have one per person.
- Fill each ornament with one of the participants' names on a folded piece of paper.
- Put the ornaments in a Santa hat, stocking, empty gift box, etc., and have each participant pick one ornament.
Merry Mail
If your group's itching for the analog age, take your exchange to pen and paper.
Give everyone a holiday card and an envelope. On the card, each person should write about their interests and a few gift ideas. On the envelope, each participant should write their home address.
You can then collect the letters and envelopes, mixing and matching the cards to addresses so each person's card is a surprise! You can go the extra mile by actually mailing out the letters, or save some money & time by handing them out yourself.
Related: 8 Christmas Gift Exchange Games for a Holly Jolly Present Swap
Go Digital With Name Drawing for Gift Exchanges
Let technology do the drawing and assigning for you. Whether via your phone, tablet, or laptop, these will skip the plotting and get you and your merry group straight to gift and celebrating planning.
Elfster
Elfster is an excellent way to plan a Secret Santa gift exchange, even if your group is miles away from one another! Elfster allows you to add a wish list to offer suggestions (or not if you want the gift to come from the heart). You can easily mail the suggested gifts or have them sent to you to wrap up personally, something I've done several times with friends who are scattered across several states.
Better yet: no one needs to know who their Santa is! So there's no risk of spilling any secrets. You can even assign rules or conditions, such as a boyfriend can't be assigned their girlfriend, or even block individuals from receiving or giving gifts as the same Secret Santa as in the past.
Drawnames
Much like Elfster, DrawNames.Com lets you generate wish lists with your participants. You can also ask your Secret Santa questions anonymously to help you craft the best gift or experience. And the best part is, by using DrawNames year after year, you don't need to manually make conditions each time. You can import previous rules, including having the algorithm not assign the same participants as previous years.
Enjoy a little modern merrymaking by downloading the drawnames app on the App Store or the Google Play Store.
It's Time to Get Your Gift Giving On
Getting and giving gifts is fun, and with these name games, the logistics can be just as entertaining! With our easy-to-use ideas for Christmas gift name drawing, you'll be paired up and on your way to presents in no time.
