A Christmas wishlist you can send to everyone at once

Write it earlier than feels necessary

The right moment is the first half of November. Not out of love for planning, but for three very practical reasons.

• Black Friday. Half the presents get bought during those sales, so the list has to exist before them, not after.
• Delivery. By mid-December shipping estimates slip and some items simply run out.
• Office Secret Santa is usually drawn in late November — by then people already need something to point at.

A list isn't a document and doesn't have to be finished in one sitting. Start with three items and add more as you remember them: the link doesn't change, so you can send it straight away.

What to put on it when many people are buying

The one thing that separates a holiday list from any other: it needs wishes at different prices. A grandparent, a Secret Santa colleague and a partner are shopping in three different budgets — and if everything on the list is expensive, two of the three will just go and pick something on their own.

• Small things: a book, good spices, ridiculous socks, that one mug.
• Mid-range: headphones, a board game, a record, a voucher for a place you like.
• One or two big ones — those often get bought together by several people, and a list is what makes that conversation possible.
• And things that aren't products at all: “a concert together”, “a day with no chores”, “any decent Japanese knife”.

Put sizes, colours and “anything but grey” straight into the wish. In December nobody has time to ask — and they can't ask without giving the surprise away anyway.

One link for everyone

Now the part the list exists for: handing it out. Not in pieces and not as a series of screenshots — otherwise half your gift-givers are looking at an outdated version.

1. 1Build the list. It's created without signing up — a name like “Christmas” is enough. Add wishes by pasting a store link (title, image and price fill themselves in) or just in words.
2. 2Copy the guest link. The “Guest link” button on the list page. It's the same link for everyone and it doesn't change no matter how much you edit the list afterwards.
3. 3Send it to everyone at once. Family chat, colleagues, friends. Guests need no account: they open the link and see the list.
4. 4After that the list runs itself. Someone taps “I'll buy this” and the wish reads as taken for everyone else. Nobody tells you about it — that's not a missing feature, it's the point: see the last section.

Secret Santa: a link instead of interrogation

In Secret Santa the giver usually knows very little about the person, and can't ask without giving themselves away. A link solves it in one move: once names are drawn, everyone drops their own link into the group chat and the choosing happens quietly.

If your group has a spending limit, add a few wishes that fit inside it and put the price right in the title — your Santa shouldn't have to guess which items follow the rules.

Why the surprise survives December

The list owner doesn't see reservations: no names, no “Reserved” marks. In December that matters more than in any other month — the list gets opened dozens of times, and a single accidental glance would spoil the whole evening.

Peeking is only possible on purpose: every wish has an eye icon with a confirmation, one wish at a time. After the holidays a wish can be marked as received — it leaves the list and stays under “Received” with the giver's name, so next year you can see what's already been given.