Wiltshire military children among thousands being supported this Christmas
Little Troopers has packed 2,500 special festive boxes for military children with a parent away this Christmas
Hundreds of children in Wiltshire facing Christmas with a parent on military duty are to be among thousands being supported by a military charity.
Dorset-based charity, Little Troopers, has packed 2,500 boxes of special festive goodies and resources with the help of local service personnel as part of their Christmas Smiles campaign.
Charity Founder Louise Fetigan told Greatest Hits Radio a parent missing Christmas can be a tough for children.
"It can be really difficult to have mum or dad away from home but having mum or dad away at Christmas is really difficult," she said.
Louise added: "I was a military family, we've had lots of Christmases where my husband's been away, and it is really difficult.
"There isn't a guarantee that military children will be able to even speak to their parent hat's away on Christmas Day. So it really does bring a different complexity to deployment."
Louise told us the aim of the boxes is to let military children know that their challenge is recognised.
She said it's no easy feat making it all come together: "This really is a a project of passion and it's something that we love doing and really does make a difference.
"There's so much effort and administration and logistics that go into creating the contents of 2,500 boxes, bringing all of those that those items into one place and packing all the boxes."
The boxes feature a number of resources for coping with deployment as well as a number of fun Christmas goodies.
Over 100 volunteers helped pack the boxes, which are travelling to children across the country.