What is the best low-tech protocol to simulate drawing names out of a hat and ensure secrecy?

Question

Each year at Thanksgiving, my family has drawn names out of a hat to determine who they\'ll be a \"Secret Santa\" for the Christmas gift exchange. It\'s important to our fam

Answer 1

This is a software solution.

1. Put everyone's name and address in a list.
2. Make a copy of the list, then shuffle it.
3. If any address in the original list has a matching address in the shuffled list, either shuffle again, or make a random swap until no slots have the same address in both lists. (Do this in software so you're not peeking.)
4. Print envelopes in the order of the first list.
5. Print letters in the order of the shuffled list.
6. Stuff the envelopes without peeking.

This assumes that everyone in your family lives at the same address as their spouse. It also assumes that you can trust yourself not to peek.

Happy Holidays.