Secret Santa Rules: The Definitive Guide

What’s the secret to a great Christmas gift swap? First and foremost, it’s about getting a fun group of people together. But another key is making sure all of those fun people understand what to do.

Secret Santa is one of the most well-known types of gift exchange, but not everyone knows it in the same way. In fact, not everyone even agrees on the terminology. Some people refer to it as Kris Kringle, while others consider Secret Santa to be a synonym for White Elephant.

Having said that, the standard rules of Secret Santa distinguish it from a White Elephant gift exchange in a couple of important ways. For one thing, participants buy a gift for a specific person, rather than for a random recipient. Also, for better or worse, there’s none of the stealing typical of holiday gift exchanges.

Because it’s so simple to play, Secret Santa can be a good alternative to White Elephant for some groups (especially large ones). Read on to learn more about this not-so-secret gift exchange game.

“Official” Secret Santa Rules

Here’s how Secret Santa is typically played. Just keep in mind that, as with most gift exchange games, rules can vary from place to place and household to household.

And that’s it! Those are the Secret Santa rules at their most basic. Of course, organizers of Secret Santa exchanges can add their own touches to make things more interesting and/or competitive.

Printable Rules

Here’s a printable of the rules. You might want to send these to the participants, or post them in a common area. Click on the preview image to view and print the PDF.

Ideas For Organizers

There are many different ways to run a game of Secret Santa. It’s a simple type of gift exchange that doesn’t require much from the participants. In fact, they don’t even have to show up at a Christmas party – in some cases, Secret Santa is organized and run online.

That said, most Secret Santa exchanges conclude at a holiday gathering, whether it’s at the office, a church, or in someone’s home. Here are some ideas to consider if you’re in charge of the proceedings:

Include a ballpark price on your invitation

A typical gift exchange guideline is $20. However, you can go higher or lower depending on the group. The important thing is for everyone to receive a gift that is roughly as valuable as the one they give. If you’re planning on having a signup sheet rather than invites, check out the Christmas party signup sheet printables I have created – they have room for price info at the top.

Use an online service

There are a handful of free services online that can help you with invites, signups, assigning Secret Santas, etc. A couple of options include DrawNames and Secret Santa Organizer.

Have participants make out “wish lists” for their Secret Santas

You may choose to have participants write down a few gift ideas for their Secret Santa. This can make it much easier for people to find appropriate gifts, especially if it’s not a tight-knit group where everyone knows each other well. On the downside, it makes it harder to guess who the Secret Santas are because the gifts don’t necessarily reflect their personalities.

Give people multiple chances to guess

For larger groups, it might be asking a lot for people to guess who their Secret Santa is on the first try. If that’s the case, you may want to consider giving them three chances to guess. Of course, spelling out the rules on guessing really only matters if there’s something at stake…

Offer a prize to people who correctly guess their Secret Santa

Trying to guess your Secret Santa is rewarding enough. But to add a little extra incentive, you can award token prizes to those who guess correctly. Of course, people who guess later will have an advantage due to the process of elimination, but hey, that’s just the way the Christmas cookie crumbles.

Have participants open their gifts at the same time

In this variation, participants open their presents at the same time, and individually write down their Secret Santa guesses on pieces of paper. Then you go around the room to see who was correct. This gets around the problem of people being able to guess their Secret Santas by process of elimination.

Eliminate the guessing altogether

In some cases, the guessing portion of Secret Santa may be unwieldy or just plain undesirable. For example, you may not have time to allow everyone to take a turn guessing, or perhaps the size and/or makeup of the group would make it awkward. While trying to guess your Secret Santa is half the fun, it’s not strictly necessarily to pull off a fun gift exchange.

As you can see, there are a lot of different ways to play Secret Santa. But whatever rules, twists, and terminology you decide on, the result is virtually guaranteed to be the same – a jolly good time for all involved.