FedEx : Trees for Troops

December 21, 2017

[Attachment] There's nothing like the smell of a fresh tree to get you into the holiday spirit, and no one is more deserving of a little Christmas cheer than our service members and their families.

Since 2005 the Trees for Troops program, run by the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, has provided farm grown Christmas trees to our service members overseas and their families in the United States.

2017 is a banner year for the program, reaching more than 200,000 trees delivered and covering every branch of the military at close to 65 bases in 17 countries.

To get the full Trees for Troops story, watch the video above to see the Trees for Troops event at Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland, read a note from military wife Jennifer B. below, check out an Instagram post of a decorated tree from a military family and see the 200,000th tree decorated in all its glory!

From Jennifer:

My husband is in the military and we were given orders to Guam and moved here Memorial Day weekend.

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Jennifer's Christmas Tree

My husband had to go to Portland in September with the ship so my two kids and I are in Guam alone. I have spent my anniversary, birthday, and Thanksgiving alone here with mixed emotions. It's beautiful and we love it here but we're still homesick. Even though there are a lot of stores, there are still things, like yarn for my crocheting, not readily available on the island so we have to order many things we want. Anyway, I have never heard of Trees for Troops but someone posted there were free trees here for us so I ran over to get one.

We have been home alone many a Christmas so years ago I got a small artificial tree that was a size I could manage to wrangle by myself. I showed up to get a tree and was pleasantly surprised they were individually boxed so the kids and I were able to get it inside the house by ourselves.

Once I opened the box I found handmade ornaments from kids from the States, two boxes of store bought ornaments, a box of Christmas cards for us to use, a REAL TREE FROM INDIANA, and a beautiful card from FedEx thanking us for our service.

Needless to say I cried for a while because for the first time in six months of living here I didn't feel homesick. I don't know if it's because the tree is a living thing from the States, but it felt like a big hug from home. And I honestly have to say it's one of the most beautiful Christmas trees I've ever had.

I've been a Navy wife for 16 years so this is not my first rodeo dealing with moving or change, but this is the first time I've felt so much love, support, and encouragement for the job I do as a Navy wife (and when I needed it most).

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the gift you have given me and my kids this Christmas!