Secret Santa with exclusions

The three kinds of exclusion

• Couples and partners: a two-way rule. Maya can't draw Dan and Dan can't draw Maya.
• One-way rules: Nana can't draw Aunt Rae, but Aunt Rae may draw Nana. Useful for "I bought for her last time".
• Last year's pairings: paste last year's organiser link and Hollyhush excludes every pairing from that draw, privately, without showing anyone the old result.

How many exclusions is too many?

A draw exists only if every person still has enough people left that they could draw, and, more subtly, if no group of people is competing for too few giftees. With 8 people and 4 couples you are fine. With 4 people in two couples you are on the edge: each person can draw only 2 of the other 3. Add one more rule and the draw may be impossible.

You don't need to calculate this. Hollyhush runs a matching check as you add rules and shows a green tick or a plain-English problem such as "Maya, Dan and Priya can't all be matched with these rules".

Rules of thumb

• In groups under six, keep to one or two rules.
• Don't exclude "everyone in my household" and "everyone in my team" at once.
• If the draw won't resolve, drop the one-way "last year" rules first. They are the nicest-to-have.
• In a family with several couples, mutual rules for each couple plus last year's pairings works fine from about 8 people.

Do exclusions stay private?

Yes. Rules are stored only to let you edit the draw before anyone opens a link. Participants never see them. If you chose to hide the draw from yourself, you still can't see who drew whom, only the rules you set.