Organize a Secret Santa with Google Docs

Google is trying to prove that Google Docs is a great tool for your office not only for work, but for fun as well. With the holidays looming ever closer, Google is debuting a Secret Santa gift exchange template, along with other holiday-themed ones.  

The template takes care of all the steps, from putting your name down, to the random draw to making sure everyone gets all of the info needed.

"If you’re hosting a gift exchange with your friends, family, or colleagues, try our new Secret Santa gift exchange template," Teresa Wu, community manager at Google, wrote.

"This template will allow you to quickly send out a form to collect the necessary information from participating guests. Then, using a Google script, the form will assign Secret Santas and send automated emails to guests with all the details - no folded paper scraps necessary," she explained.

Google made use of tools already available in Docs to put together the template. It starts with a form through which everyone can enter their name and email address.

Once all that info is gathered, a spreadsheet is created and automatically filled, matching everyone to their Santa. All involved then get an email with the details and their 'target.'

The interesting part is that all of this could have been created by anyone with Docs' existing functionality.

Google has even more holiday-themed templates that could come in handy, for example, simple RSVP invites for a holiday party, shopping lists, if you're still not done yet, or custom gift tags.

There are even more templates in the Google Template Gallery, just search for something like holiday event.

While Docs' collaboration features are great in a work environment, they're just as useful when trying to organize something with friends, especially, if it's hard to get everyone together in the same place.