Does anyone have a solid recommendation for a private way to share a holiday gift list with my family where people can actually mark things as bought? Im trying to organize our annual Christmas swap for my huge extended family back in Chicago—there are about 18 of us this year ranging from my tech-savvy siblings to my great aunt who still struggles with her iPad—and the old way of just emailing a Word doc back and forth is driving me totally insane. Last year three different people bought my brother the same specific coffee grinder because nobody knew who was getting what and the email thread got buried.

Ive been looking at a few options but I cant decide which one wont cause a total meltdown during the holidays. Option one is Elfster since it seems to be the big name in these things and it handles the secret santa drawing too which would be a plus for us. But I have heard they send a ton of marketing emails and I really dont want my inbox or my parents inboxes blown up with junk every single day.

Option two is Giftster which seems a bit more private and focused just on the lists themselves, but is the interface easy enough for a 75 year old? It looks a little dated to me honestly and I worry if its too clunky people just wont use it and we will end up back on the email chain. My third thought was honestly just a shared Google Doc or a Sheet but thats kind of a disaster because if I go into the doc to update my own list I might accidentally see who claimed my stuff and that totally ruins the surprise of opening gifts on the 25th.

The budget for our swap is strictly under $50 so I need a site that lets us put links from any random store, not just forced Amazon links. I only have about two weeks to get this set up before everyone starts panic-buying things. Does Giftster feel too old-school for younger people or is Elfster really as spammy as people say? I just need something that stays private and keeps things hidden from the owner of the list...