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Plouf-Ploufle retour
Coming soon

Secret Santa online

Draw Secret Santa pairings fairly and confidentially, and send each participant their recipient's name.

Organise a Secret Santa at the office, with family, or among friends: each participant gets their recipient privately, with nobody able to cheat.

Secret Santa mode generates a draw where each participant gives a gift to another, never themselves. Our algorithm can avoid short loops (A↔B) if you want, and lets you exclude certain pairs (couples, roommates, direct co-workers) to keep the surprise intact.

Each participant gets a personal link that reveals only their recipient. As organiser, you can choose to see the whole draw or stay completely blind. As always, no data leaves your browser — the links are self-contained.

Mode under construction for the holiday season. In the meantime, the classic draw can pick a "main Santa" or a gift theme.

Try the classic draw meanwhile

FAQ

  • Is the random draw really random?

    Yes. We use your browser's crypto.getRandomValues with rejection sampling to avoid any modulo bias. Every participant has strictly the same probability of being picked.

  • Is my data sent to a server?

    No. Everything happens in your browser: participant entry, the draw itself, even the share-link generation. No server receives or stores your data.

  • How does sharing work?

    The link you copy already contains the whole result: the participants list and the winner. Your friend opens the link and sees the exact same draw, no sign-up, no account, on any device.

  • Does Plouf-Plouf work offline?

    Yes, the draw works without an internet connection once the page has loaded. Only sharing requires your recipient to be online to open the link.

  • Is there a participant limit?

    No limit for typical use — a classroom, a team, a group of friends, a secret santa. For very long lists (hundreds of names), sharing by link may become impractical, but the draw itself keeps working.

  • Can I use Plouf-Plouf in a classroom?

    Yes — it's one of the most natural uses of the site. No sign-up, no trackers, no advertising cookies: the tool fits classroom contexts and works well for picking students, teams, or volunteers at random.

  • Are you the old plouf-plouf.fr?

    No. The old plouf-plouf.fr is operated by an independent third party, and we have no legal or editorial connection to it. We share only the inspiration: the traditional French children's rhyme.

  • Why Plouf-Plouf?

    "Plouf-plouf" is a traditional French children's rhyme, chanted while pointing fingers to pick who goes first. The name is in the public domain.

    A popular website, plouf-plouf.fr, served as an online random-draw tool for years before going offline in 2025. We are not its publishers: that site is independent, operated by a third party unrelated to us.

    Plouf-Plouf.app is our own modern take on the idea: a cryptographically fair random name picker, no account, no trackers, bilingual French and English, entirely free. Sharing happens through a self-contained URL — no server stores your participants.

    Add 2 or more people, hit Draw, and let the rhyme decide.