secret santa online

a show of hands, how many of you have played the "secret santa" gift-exchange game before? :) i'm sure most of us are familiar with this, there are a few variations but typically each person prepares a gift of an agreed budget, and bring it along to the Christmas party for exchange. this makes sure that everyone at the party would get a nice gift back in return.

Christmas is just around the corner, and it's the time of the year when friends, family, old acquaintances gather to celebrate and catch up with one another. if you haven't started planning for this year's party or are just about to send out invites or organise a "secret santa" gift-exchange for your group, do check out www.secretsanta.com.

this gift-exchange event planner provides easy-to-use online tools to help you send out e-invites to your friends, who can easily RSVP via the same website. what's cool about this is the feature that automatically pre-matches your guests to his/her "secret santa" gift-recipient. once you've confirmed your attendees, with just a click of the "send" button, everyone in your attendees list will receive an email with the designated recipient name that only he/she would know (even you - the administrator, wouldn't have a clue). you can also choose to indicate a budget range for the gift, set up a wish list, and/or even an "exclusion list" to prevent scenarios where, for example, a recipient gets a gift from her own husband or vice versa.

for something more unconventional and funny, try the "yankee doodle swap" or "white elephant" versions instead - equally intelligent tools. best part of it all, the applications are absolutely FREE, only the administrator needs to sign-up. ho ho ho!