A Santa video for your wishlist

A link to a wishlist is easy to miss in a group chat. A video where Santa says the recipient’s name out loud is not.

What it is

A short video you make from your own wishlist. Santa holds a list in his hand, says the recipient’s first name, mentions that some wishes are still free, and asks for help with them. His closing frame carries your list’s address.

• Length: about 13 seconds
• Shape: portrait, so it fits WhatsApp, an Instagram story or Signal as it is
• What it costs: nothing
• Language: German

The voice is German, and so are the subtitles. That is the one thing to know before you start: Santa greets, says he has a wishlist in front of him, reads out the first name, says some wishes are still free, and asks whether people will help. Nothing in the video is in English, which is also why the button only shows up on German lists.

Each line appears as a subtitle as well. That matters, because most videos in a chat are watched with the sound off.

Making one

1. Open your own wishlist as its owner
2. Switch to the Wishes tab — that is where the button sits, not on the other tabs
3. At the top, next to Share, press the Christmas video button

A window then takes you through three steps:

1. Character and example. Santa is already picked; “Green grouch” and “Dog” sit next to him and are still to come. Below them a finished example video plays with sound — listen to it, it costs nothing and processes no name. Then press Continue with Santa
2. The name. Type the recipient’s first name into Name of the gift recipient. Optional: open How the name is pronounced (optional) and write down how the name sounds. Then press Create video
3. Done. The video appears in the same window, with the buttons for sharing it

Santa practices the name while you wait. It usually takes a few seconds. Stay on the page and leave the window open until the video shows up.

The name

Use the first name on its own, not a full name. The video travels through chats, and a first name is enough for everyone to know who it is about.

Up to 20 characters, and within those only letters, spaces, hyphens and apostrophes. Numbers, emoji and punctuation are turned away. If a name needs more than 20 characters, use the short form that the person uses themselves.

How it sounds

A machine reads some names wrongly. There is a second, optional field for exactly that: you write down how the name SOUNDS, spelled the way a German speaker would read it out.

Name	Spelled for the voice
Chiara	Kiara
Yunus	Junus
Siobhan	Schiwaan

Whatever you put in that field is what gets spoken. The subtitle and the closing frame still carry the real name. The same limits apply as for the name itself: up to 20 characters, letters, spaces, hyphens and apostrophes only.

Worth doing: leave the field empty on your first try. Listen to the video, and fill it in only if the name really comes out wrong.

Sharing it

In the third step, two or three ways lead out of the window, depending on what your device can do:

1. Share video — wherever your browser can hand on video files, which in practice means a phone. It opens the share menu your device already has, so the video can go straight to WhatsApp, Instagram, Signal or anywhere else you send things. Where the browser cannot, the button is missing.
2. Download — the video lands in your files, ready to send later or to upload to a story.
3. Copy link · 1 h — for the case where neither of the first two works.

Next to them sits Try again with a pronunciation: the way back to the second step if the name comes out wrong. It only shows while you still have a try left.

The labels above are the English ones. The button itself only appears on the German address today, where they read in German, so that is where you will be doing this.

The copied link lasts one hour, then it expires. That is deliberate: a video carrying a child’s first name should not stay reachable on the open internet. Download it if you want to keep it.

The closing frame shows your list’s address. A short one can be typed in; a long one we shorten in the middle with an ellipsis so it fits the frame, and then the way in is the copied link or the share menu.

What it will not do

• Two videos per list, and no more. The second one is there in case the name comes out wrong the first time — which is what the pronunciation field is for.
• Making one works only between October 15 and December 26. A finished video stays reachable after that — you can still download it and share it.
• German lists only. If your list is set to English, the button does not appear, because the video is spoken in German.
• Not on creator pages, and not on lists marked for adults.
• Only you and your co-owners see the button. Your guests never do.

Privacy

Speaking a name out loud needs a service that can do it. What happens:

• We send the first name alone — or, if you filled it in, your spelling of it — to ElevenLabs Inc. in the USA, inside one fixed German sentence. Nothing else goes with it.
• No email address, no surname, nothing about your guests and nothing about what is on your list.
• The name appears in no log file of ours and in no error report.
• Everything goes on January 15: the video itself, the name and the spelling you gave for the voice. After that date we hold none of it.
• Delete the wishlist before then, and the video, the name and the spelling are removed within 48 hours — even if you restore the list afterwards.

There is more in our privacy policy, section 13a. It is written in German, as the legally binding version.

Think for a second before you share it. The first name is in the audio, in the subtitles and on the closing frame. In a family chat or among colleagues that is the point. In an open group of strangers, less so.

When something goes wrong

The voice failed

Try once more. If that does not help, use the pronunciation field to write down how the name sounds — often one character is what the voice cannot handle.

A failed attempt does not use up one of your two tries: what counts is finished videos, not attempts. If an attempt breaks off after it has taken its place — during the voice, the upload or the final step — that place can stay taken for up to an hour. Your next attempt frees it, or the nightly cleanup run does.

It is taking too long

Stay on the page. After about a minute and a half the page stops waiting and checks one last time whether the video turned out ready after all. If it did not, try again later, when fewer people are making videos at the same time.

The name comes out wrong

That is what the second try is for. Write down how the name sounds in the pronunciation field, then make the video again.

The button is not there

Check in order:

• Is today between October 15 and December 26?
• Is the list set to German?
• Did you open the page in German, so not under /en/?
• Are you the owner or a co-owner of this list?
• Is it something other than a creator page, and not a list marked for adults?
• Is the feature switched on at all? It starts with the 2026 Christmas season.

If any of those is no, the button stays hidden.

If you already have a video and December 26 has passed, the button stays anyway — it then opens the third step directly, for sharing and downloading.

Common questions

Does it cost anything?

No. There are no packs and no credits to buy.

Can I pick a different character?

At launch only Santa speaks. In the first step “Green grouch” and “Dog” already sit next to him — marked “soon” and not selectable yet.

Can I put it in an Instagram story?

Yes. It is portrait already, so nothing gets cropped. Download it, or use the share route.

Does the recipient see the video?

Only if you send it to them. On the list itself, only you and your co-owners see it. Surprise mode changes nothing about what the recipient sees elsewhere.

Can I change the name afterwards?

Not on a finished video. Make a new one — you have two tries per list.

What happens after January 15?

By then we have deleted the video, and an old link stops working too. A copy you downloaded or already sent stays yours.

Is there an English version of the video?

Not yet. At launch it is spoken in German, which is why the button does not appear on English lists.