For a virtual Secret Santa, draw names here, send each person their private link by chat or email, and ask everyone to ship their gift to arrive before a group video call where you open them together. Nobody needs an account, and the names stay on your device. The form starts with a budget that covers postage, a message telling people to ask you for addresses, and One big circle ticked for opening the gifts in turn.
Running it from start to finish
- Collect addresses privately before you draw, by direct message or a form only you can see. Never put them in the group chat or in the reveal message, because the links are passed around more than you think.
- List everyone and draw. Add rules for people who live together: they’d have to post a gift to their own home.
- Send each link privately; Copy message gives you a greeting with the link to paste into WhatsApp, Slack or an email. Then send each Santa the address of the person they drew.
- Set the call date in the event details, so it shows on every reveal card.
Shipping deadlines (as of October 2026)
The US Postal Service’s 2026 holiday shipping dates for delivery by December 25 within the lower 48 states are:
| Service | Send by |
|---|---|
| USPS Ground Advantage and First-Class Mail | Thursday, December 17 |
| Priority Mail | Friday, December 18 |
| Priority Mail Express | Saturday, December 19 |
These dates are for Christmas Day. A call held earlier in December needs the gifts sent earlier, so give everyone a “send by” date about a week before the call.
For Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US territories, USPS lists the same First-Class, Priority and Priority Mail Express dates; only Ground Advantage has a separate date there. Gifts going abroad leave much earlier:
| International service | Send by |
|---|---|
| First-Class Package International and Priority Mail International | Wednesday, December 9 |
| Priority Mail Express International | Wednesday, December 16 |
USPS gives these international dates for every destination region it lists, from Canada and Mexico to Europe, Asia and Australia. Other carriers set their own cut-offs.
Opening the gifts on camera
With One big circle the whole group is one chain, so the order of opening sorts itself out. Start with anyone: they open their gift and guess who sent it, then reveal whose Santa they were, and that person unmutes and opens next. The chain passes through every person exactly once before it ends with the person who sent the first opener’s gift, so the first mystery is solved last. Everyone gets a turn on screen, and nobody has to work out who goes next.
Budgets work better when they include shipping, as in the example, since postage can cost as much as a small gift. For teams spread across countries, an e-gift card or a gift ordered from a local shop near the recipient avoids customs entirely.
Want a game for the call? Share your screen with the online bingo caller and send everyone a card, or count down the start with a 5 minute timer.
What this page fills in for you
- Event name
- Virtual Secret Santa
- Budget
- $30 including shipping
- Message to everyone
- Send your gift to arrive before our video call, and ask me (not your person!) for their address. We'll open the gifts together on camera.
- Options
- One big circle
Change any of it before you draw. Your edits and your draw are saved in this browser for this page only, separately from the main Secret Santa generator, so you can come back here to resend a link.