Christmas is a time for family and friends coming together to celebrate. Unfortunately, this isn't always possible if one or more members of the family are deployed over the festive period.

While you can still have your celebrations, open presents and eat your weight in turkey, there is something missing. It is much harder for them too, as they can be thousands of miles away from home without the comforts of Christmas traditions.

Although you can save some of the celebrations for when they get home, even if that is several months away, it is a good idea to send them some festive cheer. This way, they'll get a parcel to open on Christmas Day and will know that you're thinking of them.

However, you can't send anything and everything over to them, so you need to be careful what you include in your Christmas parcel. Here are some great ideas that will help to spread the festive cheer to service personnel wherever they are in the world.

Christmas jumpers

While a Christmas jumper may not be part of the uniform, it is something they can pop on when off duty and will probably put a smile on their face. This is an especially good idea if you have a tradition with your family to wear Christmas jumpers or you can start the tradition this year and include a picture of the whole family looking festive.

If a jumper isn't quite their style or if they're deployed somewhere a bit hot for extra layers, why not find a Christmas-themed T-shirt or something funny like underwear. Either is sure to put a smile on their face.

Tasty treats

One of the best parts of Christmas is all the tasty food, so don't let deployed family members miss out on this aspect of the festive season. While posting mince pies and other perishables may not be the best option, you can add sweets, crisps, nuts and other food that you associate with Christmas in a parcel for them.

Give them enough to share so they can spread the joy with everyone else and you'll probably make a lot of servicemen and women incredibly happy!

Fun games

It's hard to get downtime when deployed, so adding something fun and a bit silly in their Christmas parcel will give them and others a chance to relax a bit. Sadly, big board games probably aren't going to be good options, but smaller games like Uno, packs of cards and travel versions are good ideas.

You could even pop in a few of the jokes and tricks that you get in crackers so they get to enjoy this part of the Christmas season too.

Christmas cards

The great thing about Christmas cards is that they are an easy way to tell someone you care about them. Get the whole family and all their friends to write Christmas cards for them including seasons greetings and lots of love. You can even add letters to the cards so they can read about what everyone has been doing to really feel like part of home. 

If you can't send them lots of presents, this is a great way to give them things to open and ensure they have a part of home with them while they're deployed.

Useful things

Of course, you can also take this opportunity to send them things that they need on a daily basis. Things like toiletries, toothpaste and anything else they tend to run out of are great additions to any parcel, so why not wrap them up ready for Christmas.This way they have presents to open that they actually need and will have room for. 

You can also include a photo of their actual presents all wrapped up so they know this isn't all you've got them and that you'll be celebrating when they get back.