This is the first holiday Hannah West and her daughters Charlotte and Rayleigh will be celebrating without the rock of their family. Hannah's husband, Joshua, is currently deployed in Afghanistan.

"We've found different ways to include him. You know, different traditions," said Hannah West, a Fort Drum Army wife. "The girls keep making holiday cards and sending decorations, drawings and things like that over to him."

For many military families, this time of year can be difficult.

"It's been hard to find our holiday spirit without him here," Hannah said.

"It's definitely harder for us families," said Meghan Eiermann, also a Fort Drum Army wife and volunteer. "Having our spouses deployed, there's usually certain traditions you have as a family. We keep up with our traditions. We just keep going for the kids." 

Fort Drum's USO is helping fill the void, hosting holiday programs like Christmas balls and cookie decorating classes to bring spouses and children of deployed soldiers together for the holidays. They're looking to create lifelong bonds and help those embrace the holiday season.

"It just gets you into the holiday spirit," said Eiermannm "and being around so many other people, and you know a lot of them are in the same position that we are in."

"I'm very thankful for these programs," said Hannah West. "Without them we probably wouldn't have found our holiday spirit this year. It's very easy to stay home and not connect with others when the husband is gone especially. So having these programs that help get us out of the house definitely helps a lot."