Fun and Fabulous Children's Gift Ideas for Your Soldier

Christmas is so close! I don't know where this year went, but it's almost gone.  I know you've already been planning what to send to your soldier, and I'll be writing about that in the coming weeks.

Today I want to touch on some simple things the kids can start picking out to send to your family's soldier -- and his barracks buddies.  When Shawn was deployed, we missed two Christmases, and two birthdays, as well as one of every other holiday.  Somehow it's hardest at Christmas -- for them as well as us. 

Several of the soldiers in Shawn's Unit received little to nothing at all from home.  I did my best to include those men in every mega-mailing by adding extra shampoo, baby wipes, or even a package of their favorite cookies with their name on it.  I would send them all to Shawn, knowing he would distribute them to those buddies.  While our FRG was fabulous at major cookie and holiday treat drives, they were all lumped together and in all that time, Shawn never received one of the goodie bags through the FRG drives.  That is mainly because he worked night details, and was either working or sleeping during the times those large shipments were divvied up.

When Christmas started getting close, I began scouring the small toy aisles, and loaded up on silly things we never would think of sending:  Silly Putty; small comic book figurines like Spiderman and The Hulk and those strange tough-guy sounding names; Transformers; Nerf shooters and foam balls; noise makers --

All those things the kids love and guess what? Those Soldiers Love Them More!  Those guys had a blast, and each and every one of them contacted me to say thanks.  It gave them a break, and took them back to being a kid, if just for a moment.  It also reinforced what they were there fighting for in the first place -- the right for our children to "be a kid" here in the most wonderful country in the world.  Our children are so far removed from the violence and desolation of war, which is exactly the way our soldiers plan on keeping it.

So, when you take the kids to shop for Daddy, or their Uncle, turn them loose in the toy department.  The small toys are best because you can make up a lot of small gift bags for your soldier's buddies, and they can use them to decorate the tree (Don't Forget to Send a Small, pre-lit Tree!  They're $10.00 well spent!), or to hand out to the kids in the villages.

For our women soldiers, Yes, this works for them, too!  We sent toy tiaras, tiny dolls and a small plastic tea set.  These are good reminders that we still remember our women, and they absolutely loved decorating their little trees with them.

All of them told us when they returned that it was those little things, sent throughout the year, received so unexpectedly, that made such a huge difference in their morale.