About

About Sealed Draw

Sealed Draw is a Secret Santa generator that runs in your browser. Add the names, choose the group's rules, then send each person their sealed link through your usual messaging app.

How it works

No draw backend. The site serves static files, with no backend or database holding your draw. Your browser applies the rules, makes the draw and seals each assignment into a link. The sealed data sits after the #; browsers omit this part of the URL when requesting a page. To try the generator offline, load it first, then turn off your connection.

No account or email collection. There is no sign-up or login, and the generator never asks for email addresses. You send the links yourself: 25 people means 25 separate messages, sent through whichever app your group uses.

Published maths. Each draw is a derangement: everyone gives once, receives once, and nobody draws themselves. The tool first shuffles the names and rejects any result that breaks your rules. When the readout says “uniform”, every allowed assignment has the same chance. For ten people with no exclusions beyond self-draws, that is all 1,334,961 possibilities. If shuffle-and-reject reaches its attempt limit, the tool switches to “constrained”. Those results still obey the rules, but we do not claim they are equally likely. Unlike arranging everyone in a single circle, the uniform method can include two people swapping gifts, unless you turn on no swap-backs. The methodology page explains the algorithms, limits and tests.

What the organizer can see

In a Quick draw, the send list has no bulk pairing view. But the organizer holds every sealed link and can deliberately open them one at a time, past a screen naming the intended person. That extra step is a warning, not a barrier to someone who chooses to look. Choosing to print folded paper slips also puts the assignments on the printout.

In a Locked draw, each participant's device creates a key pair. They send the organizer a participant code containing the public key and keep the private key in their keep link. A sealed link alone is not enough to open the assignment. This does not hide the draw from the browser that makes it: an organizer using developer tools at draw time can inspect the pairings.

If you want someone outside the group to run the draw, choose a person who isn't playing and send them a roster link from the generator. It carries the names and rules, not assignments; that person makes the draw. The methodology page explains what organizers, participants and people who receive a link can learn.

Who runs it

The site is built and run by an independent developer. Advertising is planned for the guides and methodology pages. The generator, reveal page and key maker will stay ad-free: a third-party script on those pages could read draw data or keys.

For questions, corrections or a rule the generator doesn't support, get in touch. We run no analytics anywhere on the domain. Our privacy policy explains the offline cache, the sealed links kept in your browser tab while you send them, and what happens when you share a link through a messaging service.