The story behind Amazing Secret Santa
A free Secret Santa organizer born from a very real problem: drawing names with my group of friends. Here's how it started, and who's behind it.
How it all started
Like many side projects, it began with a small but very real problem.
01
The problem
Every year my friends and I organize a Secret Santa, and every year the same questions came up: how do we draw names when we're not all in the same place, keep everything secret and make sure couples don't draw each other?
02
The search
The online tools I found asked everyone to create an account, were full of ads or didn't handle exclusions properly. I just wanted something simple that worked.
03
The solution
So I did what developers do and built my own: add the names, set the exclusions, and everyone gets their match by email. It worked so well that I decided to make it free for everyone.
What matters to me
The principles behind every feature of Amazing Secret Santa.
Free, for real
No premium plan, no locked features and no ads in the middle of your draw. Everything works for everyone.
No account needed
Nobody has to sign up, neither the organizer nor the participants. Add the names and you're ready.
Privacy first
Email addresses are only used to send each participant their match, and they're never saved in our database.
Made for every group
Friends, families or coworkers, in five languages: English, Italian, French, German and Spanish.
Meet the developer
The person behind the code (and the gift-exchange obsession).
Software developer from Italy
Mauro Brambilla
I'm Mauro, better known online as Bruma. I've been building software professionally since 2017, mostly large enterprise projects, and in my spare time I create my own products, both software and hardware.
I love building tools that are complete, user-friendly and easy to use, and solving real-world problems with clean code, caffeine and a bit of curiosity. When I'm not coding, you'll probably find me playing the guitar or reading about finance.
This website is built with
- Nuxt
- Vue
- Tailwind CSS
- Node.js
- MySQL
Now it's your turn!
What are you waiting for? Draw your Secret Santa and dive into the world's most famous festive gift exchange adventure!
Let yourself be surprised by the perfect gift that's just waiting to be discovered!
- 100% Free
- No Login Required
- Email Notifications
