Set up a Secret Santa or gift exchange for a group — Bestboy draws names, keeps them secret, and lets everyone add gift ideas for the person they're buying for.
## 🎅 Running a Gift Draw (Secret Santa)
A **Gift Draw** is Bestboy's group Secret Santa / gift exchange feature — nobody needs an account to create one, join one, or draw a name.
### Creating a draw
1. Go to [Start a Gift Draw](/gift-draw/new) and give it a name (or pick an occasion chip like Secret Santa or Christmas). 2. Set an optional budget per person, and add everyone's name and email — Bestboy needs each person's email so they can find their own spot later. 3. With four or more participants, you can allow one group re-draw in case everyone wants a do-over. 4. Create the draw. You'll get a shareable link and a passcode — either one gets someone in.
### Joining a draw
- Click the link an organizer sent you, or go to [Join a Gift Draw](/gift-draw/join) and enter the passcode. - Enter your email to find your spot. If you weren't added by the organizer, use **Not listed? Add yourself** instead. - Click **Draw a name** to reveal who you're buying for. Once revealed it stays the same — there's no way to redraw just for yourself.
### While the draw is running
- Add your own wish under **Your own wish** — whoever draws you will see it as a hint. - Once you've drawn your match, you'll see any hint they left for themselves, plus a gift idea suggestion you can edit and save to [your People list](/help/gift-ideas-for-others) to keep planning there (sign-in required to save). - If the organizer enabled it, anyone can trigger **Redraw for everyone** — a fresh draw for the whole group, once.
### Organizing
Reopen the draw's link (or find it under [Settings → Gift Draws](/settings/gift-draws) if you saved it to your account) to:
- Copy the shareable link and passcode again. - Send email invites to everyone who has an email on file. - Set exclusions so specific people can't draw each other (e.g. couples) — needs at least three participants. - Remove a participant before the draw happens. - Save the event to your account so it's easier to find later.
A draw's link and passcode aren't guessable and aren't search-indexed, so only people you've shared them with can find it.
No — anyone can create or join a Gift Draw without signing up. Saving it to your account afterward is optional, and just makes it easier to find later.
They enter the email the organizer added them with (or add themselves if they weren't on the list), then click Draw a name to reveal their match.
No — the draw pairs everyone privately. The organizer can see who's revealed their match and who hasn't, but not the actual pairings.
If the organizer enabled re-draws when creating the event (needs at least four people), anyone can trigger one fresh draw for the whole group from their own draw screen — it can only be used once.