How it works
These Secret Santa riddles go on the gift tag, so the receiver has to guess what is inside before opening it. Each of 40 common gifts has four: an easy rhyme, a trickier rhyme, a riddle and a one-line teaser.
Read the full guide
Find the riddles for your gift
The page opens on a mixed ten with the answers shown, because you are the giver. Choose your gift on the list that reads Any gift, from a mug to an umbrella, and its four riddles appear. Under More filters, the Clue row keeps one kind, such as One-line teaser.
Put it on the tag
Copy the riddle by hand, or press Print and cut it out. Sign it Secret Santa and nothing else. For a note that hints at who the giver is, the Secret Santa questionnaire page holds teasers about the Santa.
Tips
- A Secret Santa riddle has to fit a tag: every one here is 90 characters or fewer.
- If the wrapping gives the shape away, use a bigger box and the riddle that never names the gift.
Questions and answers
What is a good riddle for Secret Santa?
One the receiver can solve holding the wrapped gift. For a mug: I am held first each morning, and blown on before I am trusted. For socks: we travel inside your shoes all day and never see where we are going.
How do you write a Secret Santa riddle about the gift?
Describe what the gift does without naming it: where it lives, what it holds, when it is used. Two short lines fit a tag. Or choose the gift in the menu here and copy one of its four.
Do these riddles give away who the Secret Santa is?
No. Every riddle is about what is inside the wrapping. Notes that hint at the giver, with a blank for your own detail, are on the Secret Santa questionnaire page.
What if my gift is not on the list?
Take the nearest one: a travel mug can use the mug riddles, mittens the glove riddles and a paperback the book riddles. The list covers 40 gifts that fit a small spending limit.