--- title: "Family Secret Santa: How to Run a Draw Where the Gift Is Food That Keeps" date: 2026-11-12 author: "Dragos Nistor" featured_image: "https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/family-secret-santa-hero-desktop.jpg" categories: - name: "Honey Guide" url: "/honey-guide.md" tags: - name: "Christmas" url: "/tag/christmas.md" - name: "honey gifts" url: "/tag/honey-gifts.md" - name: "secret santa" url: "/tag/secret-santa.md" --- # Family Secret Santa: How to Run a Draw Where the Gift Is Food That Keeps ![Three jars of HB and Co. raw honey, acacia, heather and wildflower, each with a blank gift tag, beside a small bowl of folded paper slips for a family Secret Santa draw](/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/family-secret-santa-hero-desktop.jpg "1")One name each, one jar each. Acacia, heather and wildflower, tagged and ready for the draw. Christmas gifting A family Secret Santa works best with one name each, a £15 ceiling and a gift that keeps: one full-size jar, not a bag of small things. Instead of everyone buying for everyone, each person draws one name and buys one good present. Add one rule, that the gift must be food that keeps, and several of the usual arguments are settled before December. Nobody has to guess a jumper size, and a jar that is still in the cupboard in February has done its job. Below: why a family draw needs different rules from an office one, how to draw names when half of you live somewhere else, five rules worth agreeing before anyone shops, which of our six honeys suits which relative, and the questions that come up every year. ## Why a family draw is not an office draw In 1993 the economist Joel Waldfogel found that gifts from people further away socially, such as aunts, uncles and grandparents, lost the most value in the eyes of the person receiving them (American Economic Review, 1993). That is the office problem, and we wrote about it in our [office Secret Santa guide](https://honeybeeandco.uk/secret-santa-honey-gifts/). A family draw has a different one. You know the person well, sometimes too well. You know your sister has never finished a jar of anything, and that your father-in-law reads every label before he eats. The real risk in a family is uneven gifts. One cousin quietly spends double the limit, and everyone else looks mean on the day. Food helps here more than almost any other category, because a good chutney, a bag of freshly roasted coffee or a jar of honey is easy to judge for value. Everyone at the table can see roughly what a jar of honey cost, which keeps the gifts even. Food that keeps is the easiest way to keep a family draw fair. ## Drawing names when nobody is in the same room The hat has its merits: round a table at Sunday lunch it is quick, and half the fun. It works less well when one branch of the family is three hours away and the grandparents join on the phone. Someone draws on behalf of someone else, and sooner or later a person pulls out their own name in front of everyone and has to put it back. When half the family is elsewhere, an online draw is simpler. We point people to the free [secret santa generator](https://happygiftlist.com/secret-santa/create) from Happy Giftlist: each person’s name and email go in, a budget is set, and everyone is sent their match by email. The same site lets anyone keep a wishlist, which is useful for the relative who always says they need nothing. Whichever way you draw, do it early. Mid-November leaves time to shop calmly and to have anything ordered online arrive without a rush. A draw held the weekend before Christmas is a draw for whatever the corner shop has left. ![A hand lifting one folded slip of paper from a small bowl of folded slips on a table, drawing a name for a family Secret Santa](/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/family-secret-santa-drawing-names.jpg "2")The hat still works when everyone is in the room. When they are not, draw online and let the email do it. ## Five rules to agree before anyone shops 1. **Set one limit and say it out loud.** £15 is a sensible family figure: high enough for one full-size, good thing, low enough that nobody feels stretched. Agree that it is a ceiling, not a target. 2. **Choose food that keeps.** Nothing that has to be eaten by Boxing Day. The Christmas fridge is already full, and a gift that has to compete with the leftover ham will lose. 3. **Think about allergies.** Honey is not one of the 14 allergens UK food law makes businesses declare (we covered the list in our [office guide](https://honeybeeandco.uk/secret-santa-honey-gifts/)), so it is a safe default when you are not sure who avoids what. 4. **Remember who should not have honey.** It is an animal product, so it is the wrong gift for a vegan relative. Honey should also not be given to babies under 12 months old, as the [NHS advice on foods to avoid giving babies](https://www.nhs.uk/baby/weaning-and-feeding/foods-to-avoid-giving-babies-and-young-children/) sets out. If a baby is in the draw, their present should be something else. 5. **Keep it to one present.** The quickest way to undo a Secret Santa is one person who also brings a little something for everyone. Agree that the draw is the whole of it. ## Which honey for which relative Every jar in our range is 280 g. Five of the six are £10.99 and Heather is £12.99 (prices correct at the time of writing), so any of them sits inside a £15 limit with room for a tag. If you want to see all six side by side first, [types of raw honey](https://honeybeeandco.uk/types-of-raw-honey/) sets them out. - **For the one who cooks the Christmas ham:** [Heather](https://honeybeeandco.uk/heather-honey/). It is the honey we glaze our own ham with, and it holds its own against English mustard. It also clings to scored fat rather than sliding into the tin. The full method is in our [honey glazed ham recipe](https://honeybeeandco.uk/honey-glazed-ham/). - **For the one who bakes:** [Sunflower](https://honeybeeandco.uk/sunflower-honey/). In our ham recipe it is the second choice, for a rounder glaze, and that roundness carries into a cake tin just as well. - **For the one who puts honey in their tea and nothing else:** [Acacia](https://honeybeeandco.uk/acacia-honey/). It is the most delicate of the six; it would disappear under mustard, and in a cup that gentleness is the point. - **For the one who wants honey on toast without drips on the counter:** [Soft Set](https://honeybeeandco.uk/soft-set-honey/). - **For the relative you cannot place:** [Wildflower](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wildflower-honey/). - **For the one who likes to know exactly where their food came from:** [Linden](https://honeybeeandco.uk/linden-honey/). The name on the jar is the tree. If you genuinely do not know the person well, read the label rather than the description. It tells you where the honey came from, which is more useful than any adjective we could add. ## Ordering, posting and the honest limits We only ship within the UK for now, though we plan to open delivery to the EU, the USA, Canada and Korea over the coming months. If you live near each other, one person can place a single order for three jars and hand them round; that is the simplest way to reach free UK delivery, which applies to 3 or more jars on any order type. If you are spread across the country, order separately and have each jar sent to the giver to wrap at home. Standard delivery takes 2 to 5 working days, so order with that in mind. Raw honey sets in the cold, and a jar that arrives firm in December is normal: [crystallised honey](https://honeybeeandco.uk/crystallised-honey/) is the same honey in a different shape. Warm it gently in a bowl of warm water and it will loosen again. Do not put it in the microwave. ## Six jars, all under the £15 ceiling Raw, single-origin honey from our family’s hives in Transylvania and from our British supplier. Every jar is 280 g. Free UK delivery on 3 or more jars on any order type, standard delivery 2 to 5 working days, 55 Google reviews at 4.9 stars. If one person is ordering for the whole draw, the [gift sets](https://honeybeeandco.uk/honey-gift-sets/) arrive boxed. Everything is in [the shop](https://honeybeeandco.uk/shop/). [Shop the six honeys](https://honeybeeandco.uk/shop/) ## Questions people actually ask Should children be in the same draw as the adults?It usually works better as a separate draw with a lower limit, so a child is not opening a jar of chutney while their cousin opens a toy. [Draw names](https://happygiftlist.com/draw-names/create) for the children on their own, and let the adults keep to food. Can anyone see who drew whom?With a hat, only if someone pulls their own name and has to draw again in front of everyone. With an online draw, each person gets their match by email and nobody sees the other pairs. What is a sensible budget for a family Secret Santa?£15 works for most families: it buys one full-size, good thing and nobody feels stretched. Say the figure out loud and agree that it is a ceiling, not a target. How long does a jar of honey keep?Well past Christmas. Honey is a food that keeps, so nobody has to finish it by New Year. Each jar carries its own best-before date; go by that. Can we send a jar to family abroad?Not yet. For now we deliver within the UK only; the EU, the USA, Canada and Korea are planned over the coming months. HB **HoneyBee & Co. editorial team**, a six-generation Transylvanian beekeeping family based in the UK. We write about honey we have harvested, cooked with and sold. More at [honeybeeandco.uk](https://honeybeeandco.uk/). Updated: 12 November 2026