Draw Secret Santa pairs
Nobody draws themselves, couples can be excluded — a fair assignment in one shuffle.
Tools used in this guide
The job
The draw is easy to do badly: someone draws their own name, or their partner's. The tool retries shuffles until the assignment is a valid derangement-plus-exclusions.
Names plus exclusions
One name per line (3–200). Optional 'A ≠ B' lines forbid a direction: A won't give to B, though B may still give to A.
Worked example
Eight names plus two couple exclusions typically resolve in a handful of shuffles; the pair list copies or downloads for private distribution.
Where it stops
The draw is printed plainly — each recipient must be told privately; the tool doesn't email or hide results per person. If exclusions make a draw impossible it says so after 1,000 tries rather than cheating.