Each year my family needs to manage 2 Christmas lists for cross buying. One is for adults to buy for each other and the other is a list of children. Obviously the adults just buy for each other in typical Secret Santa style. Generally, each parent buys for one child and we ask for volunteers to buy for any remaining children. The idea is that each person should receive a gift that is significant to them. We have other gifts given as desired, but the shared list is a nice way to buy for each other without being too expensive or having to buy lots of small gifts that nobody wants.

In the past we have used two paper lists of everyone participating in the gift giving (Adults and children). Each person's name is on a slip of paper in two different places. Each slip reads: “You are buying for Joe. ______ is buying for Joe” where “Joe” is an example person and the blank is filled in by pen with the name of the person who drew that slip of paper from a hat. The idea is to rip the slip of paper at the left of the blank so that the first part is a reminder to yourself (“You are buying for Joe”) and the second part is a record for later in case someone is missing a gift (“Sally is buying for Joe”). This system has been honed over years to be fairly decent and reliable, but it still has issues.

Things that the paper system is not great at:
1. We have not been disciplined enough to get everyone to put gift ideas on the back of their slips of paper. As a result, people call up their relatives to try to figure out what the gift recipient might want. It's not efficient and clues in the recipients close relatives who has chosen them.
2. People lose their slips of paper and need a reminder. This makes the person who holds the record slips have to search through them to find which one they signed. (Annoying).
3. Sometimes the signatures on the slips of paper are illegible.
4. Sometimes the people who want to buy are not present physically when the list is assigned but they still want to be involved. This forces someone to choose their people for them and send them the names -- that can partially ruin the secret.

FamilySanta.com is better because:
1. The list matches can be calculated by computer and nobody needs to know the entire list
2. Gift givers can be told by email or text, which is better than a little slip of paper.
3. You can ask the system for a reminder of who you have and what they want at any time
4. You can add gift ideas to the system at any time - before and after the list is assigned
5. The system can manage multiple lists simultanneously and remind you about everyone at once