U.S. troops celebrate holidays

Santa Claus plays Camp Commando

Hundreds of U.S. Marines gather at Camp Commando in the Kuwaiti desert during a Christmas eve visit from Santa Claus.

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VIDEO U.S. troops are giving back to the people of Qatar by donating blood to the only hospital in that country that has a blood bank. CNN's Alex Quade reports (December 24) PLAY VIDEO

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thousands of U.S. troops in Kuwait, Turkey and Afghanistan are celebrating the season this year far from home.

In Kuwait, about 12,000 U.S. servicemen and women are the focus of Operation Christmas, a program aimed at giving gifts to the troops. More than 100,000 gifts will be handed out, 90 percent by Kuwaitis.

"They're protecting the interests of the world and protecting Kuwait, so we try to give as much as we can, hoping to compensate," said Kalid Almutawa, a participating Kuwaiti. "But this is the least we could do in times like these."

Most Kuwaitis give money, and very few wrap their gifts. American civilians Sheila and Lionel Gittens have been organizing Operation Christmas for eight years, making sure the program's 17,000 gifts are wrapped.

The Gittens say they have "adopted" the U.S. military as sons and daughters to fill a void left when their son died in 1994.

In Afghanistan, about 9,000 U.S. troops were marking the first Christmas there free from the extremist Islamic Taliban regime.

Many of the troops were celebrating Christmas at Bagram Air Base, north of the capital, Kabul.

"It's going pretty good, just relaxing, enjoying the day off," said a private 1st class who identified himself only as Santana, of the Army's 503rd Maintenance Company based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "Oh yeah, we're getting packages sent, a bunch of goodies -- they're taking care of us.

"I say merry Christmas to all my family and friends back home in Troy, New York," Santana added.

Santa raises Christmas spirits among troops at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan

Another group of U.S. troops was spending Christmas protecting Iraqi Kurds by flying U.S. warplanes over the so-called northern no-fly zone.

About half of the 2,000 personnel based at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey are reservists. Pilots serve a three-month rotation before returning to their civilian careers in the United States.

Making spirits bright on base, the walls of a structure dubbed the Morale Tent have been decked with holiday cards from American schoolchildren.

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