How to Run an Office Secret Santa

Step 1: Make it opt-in

The single most important rule is that nobody is signed up by default. Send an invitation, collect names from people who reply yes, and do not chase the ones who don't. Nobody should have to give a reason for sitting out.

This is not just politeness. A Harris Poll survey for Express Employment Professionals, run in Canada in June 2025, found 47 percent of hiring managers said employees felt pressured to spend a specific amount on gifts, and 67 percent of job seekers said workplace exchanges can foster favoritism. UK employment advisers WorkNest make the same point from the HR side: forced participation creates financial pressure and resentment, and not everyone celebrates Christmas.

Step 2: Set one budget and the dates

Pick a single number, not a range. Ranges invite people to aim for the top. Common office amounts are $15 to $25 in the US, Canada and Australia, and WorkNest suggests £5 to £20 in the UK. State whether shipping counts, and say that going over is not a kindness, since it makes someone else's gift look small.

If your team spans countries, set the budget in each person's local currency at a similar level rather than converting exactly.

Work backward from the exchange. In practice you need about a week for sign-ups, three weeks for shopping, and extra time for shipping if anyone is remote. Avoid the last few working days before a holiday, when people are away.

• Early November: send the invitation with budget, rules and sign-up deadline
• Mid November: close sign-ups and run the draw
• Late November to early December: shopping window
• One to two weeks before the break: exchange, in person or on a call

Step 3: Run the draw, with exclusions

Pulling names from a hat works in a small room, but it breaks down with remote staff and exclusions. Common exclusions: partners or relatives who both work there, a manager drawing their own direct report, and pairs from last year. You can use our free Secret Santa draw at /secret-santa, which lets you list participants and exclusions and sends each person only their own match.

Whoever organizes should also take part in the draw without seeing the results. If you have to run it by hand, have someone not participating do the matching.

Send each person their match privately and remind everyone not to announce who they drew. If someone drops out after the draw, the simplest fix is to have the organizer cover their recipient, or to rerun the draw for everyone if it happens before shopping starts.

Step 4: Publish gift rules, especially for joke gifts

Most Secret Santa problems come from gifts meant to be funny. WorkNest points out that gifts touching on age, weight, appearance, religion, sex, race or disability can lead to harassment and discrimination complaints under the UK Equality Act 2010, and similar laws apply elsewhere. Gifts like diet products or deodorant read as comments, not jokes.

A short list in the invitation saves arguments later. Ask each participant for a few likes, dislikes and allergies when they sign up, and pass them to their Santa with the match.

Gift cards are fine as long as they fit the budget, though they can feel like a shrug. A small consumable, a book from a stated interest, or something useful for the desk is usually the safest middle ground.

• No gifts about bodies, age, weight, hygiene or appearance
• No sexual or risque items, including novelty ones
• No alcohol unless the person has said they drink it
• Respect stated allergies and dietary rules
• Nothing you would not be comfortable explaining to HR
• If unsure, buy something from their list or something edible

Remote and hybrid teams

For a distributed team, ask participants for a delivery address or let them opt for a digital gift instead. Shipping addresses are personal data, so collect them privately and share each one only with the matched Santa. Set the shopping deadline earlier for anyone abroad, since international parcels slow down in December.

Hold the exchange on a video call, with each person opening their gift in turn. Keep it short; twenty people unwrapping on camera can take a long time. Gift cards and digital gifts are a reasonable fallback for anyone whose parcel did not arrive.

Keeping it inclusive

Not everyone on a team celebrates Christmas, and some people cannot spare the money in December. Calling it a winter or year-end gift exchange, keeping the budget low, and timing it away from other religious holidays all make it easier to join or skip. Avoid religious items as gifts unless the recipient has asked for them.

Offer an alternative for people who want to be part of the event without buying anything, such as a shared lunch or a charity donation in the team's name. And never tie the exchange to anything work-related: no gifts to managers, no tracking who took part, no comments about it in reviews.

Finally, close the loop. A short thank-you message after the exchange, and a quick question about whether people want to repeat it next year, tells you whether the format worked. If only a few people signed up, that is useful information too, not a failure to fix with pressure next year.