Want to know the secret to becoming the best Secret Santa of the season? A Secret Santa questionaire that is filled with a sleighful of specific queries! This can help you shop for the very best gifts without accidentally giving away your identity while trying to survey for clues about what they want.
Thankfully for you, we have compiled free, printable Secret Santa questionaires for groups of all ages so that you can snow the information you need and be the best gift giver this Christmas.
Free Printable Secret Santa Questionnaires for Kids, Teens, & Adults
No matter what age range plans to enjoy the Secret Santa gift exchange, these questionnaires can help ensure everyone gets what they want this year!
To download and print any of these Secret Santa questionnaires, you will need Adobe. If you need help downloading these printables, check out our helpful tips.
Crafting the Perfect Secret Santa Questionaire
For your Secret Santa questionnaire to succeed, you need to ask the right questions. This will ensure you can find the ultimate gifts for even the pickiest people.
Secret Santa Questions for Any Age
Secret Santa questions that should be on every Secret Santa questionnaire include:
- What are your favorites?
- Brands
- Snacks and drinks
- Restaurants
- Sports teams
- Movies and television shows
- Colors
- Hobbies
- What are the top items you have on your list this year?
- Do you have any allergies?
- What are your clothing and shoe sizes?
Secret Santa questionnaires for adults can also include questions about alcoholic beverages, and ones for kids can inquire about their favorite types of candy.
Gift Preferences
In order to unwrap more details, we also recommend including sections that inquire about the person's preferences. For instance, a person may love the smell of cookies in a candle, but they might not want their body to smell that sweet, making bath products a bad gift.
If you take the time to add a 'yes' or 'no' style section, you can quickly rule out dud gifts and better understand what they are looking for in a present. You can also consider a 'this' or 'that' section or 'things I like' and 'things I hate' sections to narrow things down further.
Tips for Secret Santa Success
Secret Santa exchanges are a fantastic tradition for friend groups and families, both big and small. It can also be a fun way to spread some joy around the office throughout the holiday season. Here are some simple tips for making this exchange jolly for everyone involved!
Pick a Theme for Your Secret Santa Exchange
After doing a basic Secret Santa gift exchange for a few years, you may want to switch things up! Some people pick a letter of the alphabet, and all gifts have to start with that letter. Others do a drinkware exchange with the person's favorite beverage and snack.
If you're thinking of changing things up, then pick your Secret Santa theme before the name selection begins and make sure that everyone is on board. Then, tailor make your questionnaire to match the components of your theme.
Agree on a Budget
Choosing a budget that works for everyone involved is extremely important to make sure that no one is stressed about the exchange and that everyone can be included. If you are doing Secret Santa on top of regular gift-giving traditions or if this is an office exchange, it is best to keep the budget relatively low — $30 to $40 is typically a good range.
Conversely, if you're doing Secret Santa in place of family gifts, then consider upping the budget since each person will only be responsible for giving to one person this holiday.
Hand out your Secret Santa questionnaires after you have decided on a budget. This ensures that everyone's requests are below the maximum price point. With our family, I like to remind everyone to list gifts and preferences with big and small price tags so their Secret Santa can get them a handful of presents.
Select Gift-Wrapping Options
For families enjoying a Secret Santa exchange on top of typical presents on Christmas morning, it can become glaringly obvious who your gift giver is by their wrapping choice. Each household tends to have its go-to wrapping paper and bags, so it isn't hard to pinpoint your person — and where's the fun in that?!
To avoid this issue, simply select a cheap wrapping paper for everyone to order as a group or agree to buy bags or paper that don't match any of the other gifts under the tree. Kraft paper can be another simple option that everyone can easily snag at their local hobby or big-box store.
I also recommend not having spouses use the same designs. This can be another quick giveaway if someone else has already discovered that your significant other is their Secret Santa.
Consider Separating Exchanges for Kids & Adults
If you have a good mix of kids and adults in your group, consider separating your exchanges into age groups. This can make shopping easier for the parents of kids who may have selected them in the exchange. Also, kids might not be the best shoppers for adults, so keeping everyone separate can better guarantee that all participants are satisfied with their gifts.
Talk About Spouses
Every year, my family does a small Secret Santa exchange when we get together to celebrate before the holiday. Our rule in the picking of your person is that you get who you get unless you select your spouse. Why? Because I will buy my husband other gifts to exchange on Christmas morning.
This can also be the case for siblings in a Secret Santa exchange for kids. Think about your group and if these types of considerations should be made before the selection.
Use a Secret Santa questionnaire
After a few years of Secret Santa exchanges, my family quickly realized the many kinks that needed to be worked out, and one of them was making sure the gift giver had a good idea of what their person wanted.
Our exchange involves my parents and siblings and our spouses. We all live in different cities and only see each other a few times a year, so having some clarity on wants and needs makes a big difference in gift satisfaction.
A Secret Santa questionnaire takes out the need to pull people away to inquire about gifts as well as the worry that your person won't like what they receive.
Set Up Expectations for the Gift Giving
For family gift exchanges, the Secret Santa typically all occurs on one night, but office groups have the option of enjoying the exchange at the holiday party or by spreading out their gift gifting throughout the month of December. Whatever option you choose, just ensure that all the Secret Santas know what is expected of them.
For instance, one gift could be given each week throughout the month, one gift could be given each day for the week leading up to Christmas, or they could just drop off one big gift sometime in the season. By clarifying this information in advance, people won't feel left out because someone didn't know the game plan for the group.
Choose Names Strategically
Once it is time to select your person, explain the budget, your groups rules for picking and giving, and then have everyone fill out their Secret Santa questionnaires. Then, fold them into squares and use the questionnaires for the drawing.
For families, I advise putting the folded sheets into a basket in another room and having each Secret Santa go in individually to select their person. Why? If someone picks their spouse or sibling, they can redraw without giving away whose name is still in the pot!
Secret Santas Are Only as Good as the Information They Have
There is a reason why kids write letters to Santa Claus each year! Even though he sees you when you're sleeping, and knows when you're awake, he still needs a bit of guidance. For those gift givers who select a person who didn't put a lot of effort into filling out their Secret Santa questionaire, here are some stellar Secret Santa gifts that could satisfy Scrooge himself!
You can also check out our Maven page to find the best gift guides for every person in your life! Secret Santa is meant to be fun so let us help you not stress and simply enjoy the exchange!
