Volunteers in the US are sending Christmas gift bags to soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Volunteers in the US are sending Christmas gift bags to soldiers serving abroad as part of Help Bag Project Rudolph.

The Archibald family are hosting a special fundraising event at Burley Junior High School, in Indiana, to provide presents for those in battlefields around Afghanistan and Iraq.

On November 20th, items will be put into their specially decorated gift bags, Mini Cassia reports, with local residents expected to offer a little help on the day.

"We'll have people walking through putting ornaments, letters and candy inside. At the same time, we'll have people writing letters, sorting letters and sorting ornaments," explained organiser Lisa Archibald Koziol.

She also told the newspaper that anyone who has loved ones serving abroad should pass on their addresses and they will do their best to send them a gift package.

"Anybody who has family members serving and would like to receive the bags, they're welcome to receive them," she said, before adding "we only get thanks. We never get pickiness".

Each military member is supposed to receive three letters, with the goal to reach 14,000 in total.

"In each bag we have three letters. We call one an 'adult letter' that's a sincere thank you and more than a one sentence letter. We have a letter called 'fluff' that's kind of rambling and 'by the way thanks'. We put in one of the cute little kids' letters that really has no substance, but it's cute," Ms Koziol went on to add.

Every letter should be positive and contain the name and address of the sender so that replies of gratitude can be sent.

Shipment of the bags is planned to take place prior to Thanksgiving to ensure that the packages arrive by Christmas.

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