Gift Shuffle – Secret Santa is a WordPress plugin that draws gift pairs among a site’s users and runs the whole exchange from the dashboard. It was built by BeeClear – a maker of WordPress plugins and smartphone apps. It shines wherever people already have accounts: a company website, an intranet or a membership site. The organizer ticks who’s taking part and sets the date and budget. After logging in, each employee sees only their own part of the game – no slips of paper in a hat, no spreadsheet of pairs.
Table of contents
- Why does an office Secret Santa on paper or in a spreadsheet fall apart?
- Who can take part in a WordPress Secret Santa?
- How does the organizer set up the event in the dashboard?
- What does a participant see after logging in to the dashboard?
- What will a participant never see on their screen?
- How do gift hints work in Gift Shuffle?
- How do you show the assignment on an intranet page?
- What if an employee can’t see their assignment?
- How do you start an office Secret Santa with Gift Shuffle?
Why does an office Secret Santa on paper or in a spreadsheet fall apart?
An office Secret Santa on paper or in a spreadsheet falls apart because the secret depends on one person and one file. Drawing names from a hat needs the whole team in one room, which remote work rules out. A spreadsheet of pairs is easy to send to the wrong person or leave open on a shared drive. Meanwhile, the organizer fields the same questions about the date and amount for weeks.
Gift Shuffle moves the game to where your team already logs in. It stores pairs against user accounts, not in a separate file. Everyone reads the exchange details and writes their own gift hints. The organizer stops being the department’s help desk.
Who can take part in a WordPress Secret Santa?
Anyone with a user account on the site can take part in a WordPress Secret Santa – on the company website or the intranet. There’s no separate sign-up form to collect. On the Participants & Draw screen, the admin sees every account with its username and email address. A checkbox in the “Participates” column marks who’s in. For a large team, the “Select all” and “Select none” buttons save time, and “Save changes” confirms the list.
A new account created in WordPress shows up on this list right away. Next to each username, the plugin also shows the last login date. A basic account is enough to join, even one with the Subscriber role, because the participant view only needs the basic read capability. The event management screens, on the other hand, are reserved for site administrators.
How does the organizer set up the event in the dashboard?
The organizer sets up the event in the dashboard, starting with the Global settings screen. In the “Gift exchange information” section, you enter the exchange date and a budget per person. The amount accepts decimals, and the currency comes from a short list: PLN, EUR, USD or GBP. PLN is preselected. Both fields then appear directly in every participant’s view. The plugin’s dashboard sums up the whole order in its quick start section:
- fill in the date, budget and email sender in Global settings,
- tick the people taking part on the Participants & Draw screen,
- adjust the labels on the Translations screen if you need to,
- click “Run lottery” to draw the pairs,
- ask the team to log in and add their gift hints.
The draw needs at least two selected people and never assigns anyone to themselves. With an active license, everyone gets an email with a link to their own screen, without the name of the person they drew. We cover pair exclusions in a separate guide with the organizer’s timeline.
What does a participant see after logging in to the dashboard?
After logging in to the dashboard, a participant finds “Gift Shuffle (BeeClear)” in the menu and the “My panel” screen inside it. At the top sits the “Gift exchange details” card with the exchange date and budget. The date follows the site’s date format, and the amount shows two decimal places plus the currency code. If those fields are still empty, the card says the details will appear once the organizer shares them.
Below is the “You will gift” card with the display name of the person you’re buying for. Underneath, you see that person’s hints or a note that they haven’t added any yet. Before the draw, the card simply says there’s no assignment yet. Next to it sits the form for your own hints. The screen ends with the anonymous chats and notification settings, which have their own article.
The default labels on this screen are in English. You can reword headings and buttons on the Translations screen – into another language or your company’s own tone.
What will a participant never see on their screen?
A participant will never see on their screen who is buying a gift for them. The plugin stores each assignment on the gifter’s account and shows it in one direction only. Since version 4.3.2, the gifter’s user ID doesn’t even reach the page’s HTML. Conversations with your own Secret Santa happen in a chat window without names or usernames.
Only the person running the exchange knows the full list of pairs. They see it in the “Assigned to gift” column on the Participants & Draw screen and in the draw history, which only administrators can open. Employees don’t have to trust whoever holds the spreadsheet. That spreadsheet doesn’t exist.
How do gift hints work in Gift Shuffle?
Gift hints in Gift Shuffle work like a short note to your anonymous Santa. You type it into the “Your hints to your Gift Shuffle partner:” field and save it with the “Save message” button. You can edit it at any time, and the new version replaces the old one. Your gifter always sees the current text under your name.
At work, specifics help most: sizes, a favorite tea, hobbies, and things you’d rather not receive. A few sentences save a lot of awkward guessing. With an active license, the gifter gets an email when their giftee updates their hints. The form works the same way in the dashboard and on a page with the shortcode. Both places save the same text.
How do you show the assignment on an intranet page?
You show the assignment on an intranet page by adding the [beeclear_secret_santa] shortcode to any WordPress page. It suits teams that rarely open the dashboard. A logged-in user sees a “My Gift Shuffle” box with the giftee’s username, their hints and a form for their own. A visitor who isn’t logged in just gets a prompt to log in.
The on-page view is leaner than the dashboard screen. Here’s how the two places compare:
| Element | “My panel” in the dashboard | Page with the shortcode |
|---|---|---|
| person to buy for | display name | username |
| giftee’s hints | yes | yes |
| form for your own hints | yes | yes |
| exchange date and budget | yes | no |
| anonymous chats (Premium) | yes | no |
| notification settings (Premium) | yes | no |
Repeat the date and amount in the page content, or point the team to the dashboard for them. The shortcode needs no extra configuration. Publish the page and share its address.
What if an employee can’t see their assignment?
If an employee can’t see their assignment, the draw usually hasn’t happened yet or their account wasn’t ticked. In both cases, the “You will gift” card says no one has been assigned yet. Check the “Participates” column and the last login date on the account list. An account ticked after the draw gets a pair only when you add latecomers, as described in the organizer’s guide.
On the shortcode page, the cause is often simpler. Logged-out visitors see only a login prompt, so remind the team to sign in first. Forgotten passwords can be reset with the standard WordPress form.
How do you start an office Secret Santa with Gift Shuffle?
You start an office Secret Santa with Gift Shuffle by installing the Premium version, which you can try for 3 days. Current prices are on the plugin’s pricing page. The participant list, the draw, hints and exchange details keep working after a license expires. Chats, exclusions, emails to participants and notifications need an active license.
Come December, nobody asks the organizer about the budget or what the new hire in accounting likes. Everyone checks their part of the game where they always log in. The organizer gets time back to plan the party. And the surprise lasts until the wrapping paper comes off.
