What is the best low-tech protocol to simulate drawing names out of a hat and ensure secrecy?

Question

Each year at Thanksgiving, my family has drawn names out of a hat to determine who they\'ll be a \"Secret Santa\" for the Christmas gift exchange. It\'s important to our fam

Answer 1

Here's a real low tech solution. Give the list of names and email address to a friend of yours and ask them to draw the names and email everyone. Hell, I'll do it if you don't have anyone.

Answer 2

When we did exchange gifts this year, I suggested http://www.secretsanta.com. My sister was in charge and she didn't have an internet connection at the time so it wasn't used.

If I remember correctly, it can keep track of previous years and can make exclusions so that people from the same family don't get each over.

Answer 3

An easy solution:

• Write each name on a card and close it.
• For each couple, put one on stack A and the other on stack B.
• Divide the singles over A and B. (You have to know who is on which stack).
• Assign the notes on stack B to someone on stack A and the other way round.
• If there is an odd number, keep one of the singles (blind) apart and assign that to another. (There is a slight chance that person gets himself) but you can counter that by taking the card yourself and swap it with another if it is you.

Answer 4

Why not automatically send everyone an email? You can put the name in a file and zip it as an attachment to avoid peeking eyes.

Answer 5

I don't know if this is too late for you. I just created a web app that will do something very similiar to this - http://www.secretsantaswap.com/

You can import contacts from Gmail/Hotmail/Outlook, and you can designate subgroups that won't be matched with one another (e.g. bill and lisa never want to get each other's names). I email each participant with their target. Participants can have the same email address (for instance, a parent could receive all of the emails for their child).

Answer 6

This is a software solution.

1. Put everyone's name and address in a list.
2. Make a copy of the list, then shuffle it.
3. If any address in the original list has a matching address in the shuffled list, either shuffle again, or make a random swap until no slots have the same address in both lists. (Do this in software so you're not peeking.)
4. Print envelopes in the order of the first list.
5. Print letters in the order of the shuffled list.
6. Stuff the envelopes without peeking.

This assumes that everyone in your family lives at the same address as their spouse. It also assumes that you can trust yourself not to peek.

Happy Holidays.