Personal Care Gifts

• Sailors love to get treats while overseas, but oftentimes basic necessities must take priority. Make sure your special sailor is well equipped for the holiday season with festive-smelling bath and skin care products. For soldiers who work outdoors, send a package of lip balm, sunscreen, moisturizer and body lotion that can help keep their skin healthy. Send a package of personal pampering gifts, such as a peel-off mud masque, bath salts, body scrub and luxury shampoo and conditioner. Feeling good about himself will help keep your sailor in good spirits during Christmas, even though he can't be with family.
  
  

Entertainment Gifts

• When duty ends, boredom can easily set in for sailors overseas. Send a small DVD library and a personal DVD player (with adapter) to your sailor. She'll be a big hit with her shipmates. Or, send a variety of games, such as dominoes, playing cards and dice. If her ship has a video game console, send her some new games. For a sailor who loves to read, assemble several new paperbacks, magazines and crossword puzzle books. Christmas may drag a little less when she's well occupied and thinking fondly of you.
  
  

Food

• Nonperishable items are a big hit with sailors who typically have to live off whatever the mess hall offers. A variety of prepackaged candy is an excellent Christmas gift for a sailor with a sweet tooth. For the junk food lover, send a big package of microwave popcorn, rice crispy squares, chips and instant macaroni and cheese. You could also enlist the help of a direct-to-troops mail-order company that specializes in sending home-baked goods to servicemen overseas. Choose from cookies, muffins and cupcakes that will have your sailor thinking happily of home throughout the Christmas season.
  
  

Other Gifts

• Restock your sailor's supply of boot laces, uniform socks and undershirts -- these get expensive when sailors must personally replace them. Send a foot massager or heating pad for relieving tired muscles at the end of the day. If your sailor works in the cold, send hand warmers and an extra blanket for her bunk. If she's an artist with no creative outlet, send her a few notepads, some sketching paper and colored pencils.