Python 3 script for drawing secret santa pairings without anyone knowing all the pairings.
usage: SecretSanta.py [-h] [-p] [-d]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-p, --print-names print names to terminal
-d, --dry-run don't write output files
To use the script input the names of all participants into the names list:
names=['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E']
invalidpairs can be used to prevent certain drawings (useful if couples take part or some people don't know each other yet):
invalidpairs={ 'A': set(['B']),
'B': set(['A', 'C'])}
This example means that A will never have to get a present for B. B will never have to get a present for A or C.
To make the gifting easier it is possible (not necessary) for all participants to give hints what they would like. Those should be saved in a .txt file in the hints folder with the name of the participant (e.g. A.txt).
The drawn pairings will be written to output files. Each participant will get his/her own file named after the participant. It contains the name of the person they should get a gift for as well as the hint this person gave. These files can then be emailed to the correct participant. Here is an example ouput (if a hintfile existed):
Hello E.
You will buy a present for A.
Have fun!
A has given this hint for his/her present:
Some hint from A
If no hint was given the last two lines would be replaced by A has not given a hint....
Everytime the script is run it overwrites all currently existing outputfiles without further warning.
-p: print the drawn parings to the terminal (useful for debugging)-d: dry-run the script without creating output files
- In order to make sure there are proper line endings for windows users the created output files should be converted with unix2dos. Otherwise windows users might just see 1 long, unformatted line in the
.txtfiles.