A Recipient is someone you are buying for. They belong to you rather than to any one event, which is what lets the same names come back every Christmas without being retyped.
Add someone to an event
Open the event and tap Add recipients. Start typing a name: anyone you have added before appears as you type, and Create new recipient makes a new one.
Nobody is notified and nothing is shared. A recipient is a name on your list, not an invitation.
Reuse people across events
Because recipients are yours rather than the event’s, adding Grandma to next year’s Christmas is two taps and her history comes with her. Open her from All recipients on Home to see everything you have ever bought her, across every event. It appears there once you have more than one event.
That list is also where you add a photo, which makes a long list much faster to scan than a column of names.
Sort recipients into groups
Once an event has more than a handful of people, Recipient groups lets you split them into family, friends, work, or whatever fits. Drag people into a group, or tap someone to choose one.
Groups belong to the event they were made in, so the groups you use for Christmas do not follow you into a birthday where they would make no sense.
Take someone off one event
Use Manage recipients on the event itself. That removes them from this occasion and leaves them on your list and on every other event.
Deleting a recipient is the other thing, and it takes them off everything. If you delete someone by mistake, Deleted recipients in the menu on All recipients will bring them back with their history.
Fix duplicates
Two Sarahs on one list usually means the same person was created twice. Merge duplicates, in the same menu, joins them into one recipient and keeps the gifts from both.
Tip
Merging is easier than deleting. Deleting one Sarah takes her gifts with her; merging keeps everything and leaves a single name.
Next, set a budget for the people you have added.