Secret Santa - The Hilarious Holiday Party Game

Secret Santa is a fast, funny, chaotic party game about giving people gifts they absolutely did not ask for.

Build a party full of awful guests. Buy them outrageous presents. Score the biggest reactions, collect the most loot, win Christmas.

It's packed with silly, profound, witty and downright stupid card combinations guaranteed to have even the Grinchiest guest laughing into their egg nog — whether you need an ice breaker, an escape from awkward drinks-table small talk, or just a way to hang out with your family without getting triggered.

We spent a lifetime wishing there was a genuinely good game to play at Christmas, and always came up empty.

                               So we made one.

                                                 -David, Liam and Cris

Sense of humor not included (or required).

No party game survives contact with its cards... here's some of ours.

And that's just a few of the crazy gifts you can give.

                                Pledge Tiers

Shipping charged separately in the Pledge Manager. Does not include VAT/GST
or other taxes - See Shipping Below.

Names added to the Nice List will be screen names unless otherwise requested.
Deadline for names will be published when known - we apologise if you don’t get
listed as the name you requested. Names must be safe for a 12+ audience (our 
decision on that will be final).

Secret Santa comes from actor Liam McIntyre (Spartacus, Wolverine, Monster Lab) and writer David Matalon (Totally Killer, Prisoners of the Secret Overlords). Between acting and writing, our entire careers have basically been about chasing big reactions from a room. 

And while it's a game of words first, we're thrilled that Cris Olansamuelle — whose art made Monster Lab so charming — is back to make this one look lovely too.

SHIPPING

WHY KICKSTARTER?

Because we've done the hard part. Now we need your help to be our Santa's elves and help us get it made!

Secret Santa is already fully designed, written and 100% illustrated. We've already worked with a manufacturer, secured production quotes and have a factory standing by to bring the whole ridiculous thing to life.

We're not tinkering with the rules in our workshop or waiting on art. The game is ready to go. Kickstarter gives us the chance to cover the manufacturing costs and get Secret Santa into your stockings and under Christmas trees everywhere.

PRODUCTION & TIMELINE

The game is finished. The factory is ready. All we need is the green light.  Once the Kickstarter campaign is successfully funded, we can move forward with manufacturing. From there, the process involves final production checks, printing, assembly, quality control, freight and ultimately shipping the finished games to you lovely people.

Estimated delivery: 6–8 months after the Kickstarter campaign ends.

That's our best estimate based on the production process, rather than a guaranteed delivery date. Manufacturing and international shipping can occasionally throw up unexpected complications, but we're starting from a strong position, with the game developed and our manufacturing arrangements already in place. We want Secret Santa in your hands as much as you do. Possibly more. You haven't seen our storage situation!

RISKS & CHALLENGES

Every Kickstarter comes with risks. Ours are primarily the practical challenges of manufacturing and delivering a physical product, rather than developing the game itself. But we've already dealt with many of the uncertainties that can come with developing a new game. We're not trying to figure out what Secret Santa should be. We know exactly what we're making. 

Of course even with a manufacturer lined up, printing schedules, production checks, quality control or unexpected factory delays can affect our timeline. We've established our manufacturing requirements and secured quotes in advance to reduce those uncertainties. Our priority will always be to deliver a game we're proud of, rather than rush something out of the factory just to hit a date.

SHIPPING & FULFILLMENT

International freight, customs, tariffs and local delivery networks are subject to factors outside our control. These can occasionally result in delays or unexpected costs. We've allowed for a realistic production and delivery window, but shipping estimates may change as we move closer to fulfillment.

Unexpected Complications

While we've done the preparation to put this project in a strong position, there is always the possibility of unforeseen problems, from manufacturing issues to increases in freight costs. We'll work with our manufacturing and fulfillment partners to address these as quickly and responsibly as possible.

Our Commitment to You

We're players as well as creators, and we know how much trust goes into supporting something that doesn't physically exist in your hands yet. The creative work is done, the manufacturing groundwork is in place, and we've taken the project as far as we can before funding production. We can't promise there won't be bumps along the way. We can promise to be transparent about them. We'll keep backers informed throughout manufacturing and fulfillment, share important milestones and communicate openly if plans or timelines change. Our goal is simple: make a great game, deliver what we've promised, and give you something worth gathering around a table for. Preferably before somebody starts arguing about politics.

Keeping You Updated

We won't vanish into a Christmas stocking the moment the campaign ends. We'll share updates as Secret Santa moves through manufacturing, shipping and fulfillment, so you'll know where things stand. If everything goes smoothly, we'll tell you. If something goes wrong, we'll tell you that too. You helped make this happen. The least we can do is keep you in the loop. 

Backer Surveys & Address Changes

After the campaign, we'll contact backers through Kickstarter's Pledge Manager to collect delivery addresses, confirm reward details and arrange payment of shipping and any applicable taxes. Please make sure you complete your survey and provide accurate information.

We'll announce a deadline for confirming shipping addresses before fulfillment begins. Once orders have been prepared for dispatch, address changes may no longer be possible. If you're moving house, please tell us before your game decides to move in with the new occupants.

Final Product & Manufacturing Changes

While the game itself is complete, minor adjustments to packaging, printing or physical components may be necessary during manufacturing and quality control. We'll keep backers informed of any significant changes affecting the finished product or their rewards. Our goal is to make the best possible version of the game you've backed.

The Nice List

If your pledge includes a place on the Nice List, we'll contact you after the campaign to confirm the name you'd like printed in the game. You can choose your Kickstarter screen name, request a different name, or opt out of having your name printed altogether. We won't include your name without your confirmation.

All submitted names must be appropriate for a 12+ audience, and we reserve the right to reject anything unsuitable. Our decision on that will be final (even Santa has standards). We'll announce a submission deadline once the production schedule is confirmed. Names submitted or changed after that deadline may not make it into the finished game. 

Refunds & Cancellations

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform, not a traditional shop. Your pledge helps fund the manufacturing and delivery of Secret Santa, rather than purchasing a product that's already sitting on a shelf. We take our commitment to backers seriously and intend to fulfill every reward we've promised. If you need to request a refund after the campaign, please contact us through Kickstarter. We'll consider requests on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the project's stage of production, Kickstarter's Terms of Use and applicable consumer protection laws. Once funds have been committed to manufacturing and fulfillment, our ability to offer discretionary refunds may be limited. If unexpected circumstances affect our ability to deliver rewards, we'll communicate openly with backers and work toward an appropriate resolution in accordance with our obligations as Kickstarter creators.

Our goal is simple: make the game, deliver the game, and leave everyone feeling considerably better about Christmas than they did before.
 

Each round, one player is Santa. 

Santa then puts a character forward, and everyone  else has to give them a gift. Santa reads the gifts out loud and then chooses the best gift. All the other Players try to guess who the Naughty gift is from. If they’re right, they get a Present Card as a reward. All other gifts that got picked as best by other players also win Present Cards. 

Once each player has been Santa (one, two or three times depending on chosen length the game), the player with the most points from their Present Cards wins the game.

LEARNING THE GAME IS AS EASY SINGING THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS... even easier because there's only half as many steps...

1) Santa presents their person to the party - Draw a player token out of the bag and set it aside. This player will be Santa this round.  Santa then reveals their Character Card and Personality Card. This is who everyone is giving gifts for this round.

2) Draw Reaction Cards - Santa then draws 3 Reaction Cards. This is what his reaction to the gifts will be. 

3) Give Gifts - All other players then pick a Gift Card from their hand and give it (face down) to Santa.

COAL! - At any time, you can spend a coal token to discard as many gifts from your hand as you wish and draw up to 7 new cards

4) Reveal - Santa reads out the gifts for their person. Then Santa places their Reaction Cards on the gifts they think their person would react that way to.

5) Reveal the Gift Givers - Each player who gave the gift that Santa placed a Reactions card on now reveal themselves with a hand up or a shout out.

6) The Naughty List - Santa then picks a Reaction Card. That present is going on the Naughty List. All players except for the winners of reactions points to the gift giver they think got that reaction. After everyone has picked someone, the owner of ‘the Naughty Card reveals themselves. Players who picked correctly get a REWARD

7) The Nice List - Finally all gift givers who got a Reaction get the reward written on the Reaction Card. Then it’s on to the next round!

WINNING CHRISTMAS!

Once Santa’s Sack is empty- i.e. every player has been Santa once (or more depending on game length)- tally up the presents. 

Whoever has the most points, wins!

Secret Santa is easy to learn, impossible to predict, and only gets funnier the better you know the people at the table. 

Setup is quick. Rules are simple. All that stands between you and victory is a pile of terrible presents — and explaining why you bought George Washington, who (it turns out) is afraid of heights, the world’s tallest ladder. Or a bottomless Bungie Cord. Or a robot toilet that hands out compliments... I mean it seemed like a good idea at the time.

You’ve never had this much fun at Christmas. Finally, there’s something to do besides talking about that religion, that politician, or that sports team.
 

WHO BY

Secret Santa was created by actor Liam McIntyre (Spartacus, Marvel’s Wolverine, maker of the Monster Lab Card Game) and writer David Matalon (Totally Killer and maker of the ) because we wanted a Christmas game people would actually want to play — every year, with anyone, and turn those boring Christmas gatherings into a party worth going to. Even better, it's drawn by Olansamuelle (Monster Lab), so the gifts you win are going to look great.

Back the campaign to help us make the holidays louder, messier, and a lot more memorable.

🎄 Pull up a chair. You’re about to ruin Christmas.

WHY DOES CHRISTMAS NEED SAVING?

We were sitting around the Christmas table, wishing there was something better to do between bites of turkey.
Something fun. Something loud. Something that didn’t immediately drift into that topic.

Then we realized something strange.

There are thousands of party games…
but basically no good Christmas games.

So we made one.

HOW TO PLAY

Instead of a list of text, imagine 4-5 horizontal panels that look like a clean, modern comic.

Panel 1: The Persona

Art: A drawing of a hand holding two cards: "A Mall Santa" + "Who is very litigious."

Caption: 1. BUILD THE VICTIM. This round's Recipient (or ‘The Big Santa’) picks a Character and a Personality. This is the person everyone is "buying" for this round.

ADDITION - Before this we should add - 'Prepare a Reaction' - The Big Santa draws and reveals 3 Reaction cards. These are the reactions that will be had after the presents are read out... gift accordingly.

Panel 2: The Gifting

Art: A top-down shot of 4 different hands sliding cards face-down toward the center.

Caption: 2. ANONYMOUS GIVING. Everyone else picks a Present from their hand that fits the persona. Is it a good gift? A bad one? A weird one? You decide.

Panel 3: The Reveal & Choice

Art: The Mall Santa character from Panel 1 looking at three cards: "A Bucket of Snakes," "A Sentient Toaster," and "A Lobotomy." He is pointing at the Snakes.

Caption: 3. JUDGMENT DAY. The Recipient reads them all aloud and picks their favorite. No logic required—just vibes.

ADDITION - We should adjust this to 'REACTION! - Santa reads them all aloud and then chooses which reaction to pair with which gift

Panel 4: The Finger Point

Art: A wide shot of 4 people around a table. Everyone is pointing their finger at one nervous-looking guy.

Caption: 4. EXPOSE THE SANTA. On the count of three, everyone points at who they think played the winning card.

ADDITION - Adjust this to - The three players that got a reaction reveal themselves. But before they take their rewards, Santa picks a winning card and asks the remaining players to figure out who it belongs to. The remaining guests point to one of the winners. If they guessed right, they'll get  Present Reward card.

Panel 5: The Loot

Art: A close-up of a "Present Token" and two cards showing a small "Candy Cane Symbol" in the corner.

Caption: 5. SCORE & COLLECT. The winner gets points. Correct guessers get Symbols. Collect 3 symbols to trade in for even MORE points.

ADDITION - Adjust this to - Then the winning gift givers gain the reward listed on their Reaction, it could be Coal, it could be Presents...or maybe something else?

Panel 6: Refill and Reset

Everyone now draws back up to 7 cards.

During this phase, if you don’t like the cards in your hand you may spend 1 of you pieces of coal (you start the game with 3) to redraw any or all of the cards in your hand.

The Recipient passes to the right and everything begins again!

ADDITION - Adjust this to, then the current Santa draws a token from Santa's Sack. This is the next round's Santa.

Panel 7: When will it all END??!

Like all good Christmas parties, you will eventually be begging for it to be over. Well good news! After everyone has been the Recipient ONCE (or twice or three times for longer games or fewer players) the game is OVER!

Everyone tallies up their PRESENTS and whoever has the most… er… WINS CHRISTMAS!? …sure why not?

🎁 Section: THE "WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE THEM?" CHALLENGE

This section is a few card examples of what funny combinations can be made…

Header: BUT... WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE THEM?

Sub-header: Let’s look at a typical Tuesday at the North Pole...

The Setup (Visual of two cards side-by-side):

Character: George Washington

Personality: ...Who is feeling a bit carsick.

The Options (Visual of 4 "Present" cards fanned out):

A Bottomless Bungie Cord: "The ultimate thrill, but maybe not the best for a queasy Founding Father."

A Bucket of Sawdust: "To, uh... soak up the inevitable mess in the back of the stagecoach."

A Robot Toilet that hands out compliments: "Nothing settles the stomach like a toilet saying 'You look presidential today, George!'"

A Single Grape: "Simple. Elegant. Low risk of return."

Footer Text:

"Which one wins? That’s up to the Recipient. In Secret Santa, the right gift isn't the most expensive one—it's the one that makes everyone at the table lose their minds."

WHAT’S STUFFED IN THE STOCKING?

Inside every copy of Secret Santa, you’ll find:

• 40 Character Cards
• 40 Personality Cards
• 180 Present Cards
• 30 Coal Tokens
• 45 Thank You Card Tokens (15 of each type)
• 60 Present Tokens
• 1 Rulesheet
• 1 Festive Game Box

Everything you need to start buying terrible gifts and blaming your friends — no extra setup, no add-ons required.

MILK AND COOKIES (THE EXPANSIONS!)

If the campaign goes really well - we're hoping to raise enough to include FOR ALL BACKERS some mini expansions to the game to give you even more ways to play!

(If we don't, we'll find a way to still offer them to purchase for all backers).

Look out for:

🎁 RECIPROCAL GIFTS

A new deck of Presents that players draw from when their gift is chosen.

These secret presents can be GOOD, or sometimes… BAD.

🥷 STEAL CARDS

Everyone starts the game with 1 Steal Card.

Players can gain more Steal Cards by cashing in 3 DIFFERENT Thank You Cards.

At any time, a player may spend a Steal Card to steal a random Reciprocal Gift from another player.

Better hope it was a good one.

🎯 THE WISHLIST

This is a deck of Wish Cards.

Each Gift Receiver is given a secret Wish.
They don’t see it — it’s placed on a small stand in front of them.

After the Gift Receiver selects their Character and Personality, gift givers now have the option of buying with the Receiver’s secret Wish in mind.

If a gift is chosen and the gift giver can justify how their gift fits the Secret Wish conditions, they get another gift card if playing that variant.

Example:
“I’m George Washington and I hate people.
SECRET WISH — My gift is under $5.”

If the winning gift giver can justify why their gift would cost less than $5, they win a bonus.

😇 THE NAUGHTY OR NICE LIST

This is a track that rewards the accusers.

After the winning gift is selected, the Gift Receiver explains why they think the present is Naughty or Nice.

Move the pen on the Naughty or Nice List 1 space in that direction.

The track determines what a player who correctly picks the gift giver this round will receive:
• ZERO symbols
• 1 symbol
• 2 symbols
• or 2 WILDCARD symbols

🎡 WHEEL OF SCROOGE

So you thought it was all fun and games guessing the Secret Santa?
Well, not anymore.

With the Wheel of Scrooge expansion, all players who guess the WRONG Secret Santa have to spin the Wheel of Scrooge to determine what their penalty will be.

At the start of the game, you will slot in 6 penalties.
These can be anything from:
• Having to give another player one of your symbols
• To having to cluck like a chicken until the next round

If you guess wrong — spin the wheel… and suffer the consequences.

Bonus: A NSFW version includes drinks to slot on the wheel.
If you guess wrong, now you have to spin to see how much you drink! (SHOTS!)

SANTA BABY (NSFW Edition)

Whisper it quietly, but if the kids have gone to sleep dreaming of Saint Nick coming down their chimney, then it's probably safe for the grown ups to play the SECRET SANTA: Naughty not Nice edition.

This NSFW expansion to the game will be available to all backers that back at those tiers, and will include:

If naughtier Characters, Cheekier Personalities, and more Risque Presents. You've been warned!

Secret Santa was created by Liam McIntyre and David Matalon, two grown adults who probably should have known better.

Liam is an actor best known for Spartacus and Marvel’s Wolverine, and David is a writer who created Totally Killer. Between them, they’ve spent years telling stories, building characters, and figuring out exactly how far you can push an idea before it becomes a terrible one.

They've both made games before - Liam made Monster Lab, and Dave made 2 games... Danger Quest and . This is their fourth game they've made together — but the first one they're releasing AND the first one that felt perfectly suited to Christmas.

We didn’t want to make a game about decorating trees or singing carols. We wanted a Christmas game people would actually want to play every year. Something fast, funny, easy to explain, and built around the best (and worst) part of the holidays: sitting around a table with people you know too well.

Secret Santa was tested at family dinners, friend gatherings, holiday parties, and anywhere people were desperate for something better to do than argue.

We’re incredibly excited to bring it to life — and even more excited to watch you blame your friends for the choices they made.

🎄 Thanks for helping us ruin Christmas properly.