SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – For many families, Christmas is a season of light. For others—especially military families facing deployments, tight budgets, or the strain of the recent furlough—it can feel heavy. Behind the decorated streets and holiday music, some parents are quietly wondering how to afford gifts or even meet basic needs.
That’s why the Utah Guard Charitable Trust and the Utah National Guard Military and Community Family Services run the Sub-for-Santa program. Their mission is simple and deeply human: make sure every military child in Utah wakes up to Christmas. The program supports Utah National Guard and Reserve Component families across the state who are experiencing financial hardship. This year, the need has grown sharply. But so has generosity. Private donors and longtime partners L3Harris and Goldman Sachs stepped forward once again, determined that no child would be left out.
Brigadier General Keir Scoubes joined volunteers at a Salt Lake Target to help shop for gifts. Surrounded by carts, lists, and laughter, he explained why the program means so much to the Guard. “The opportunity to give back to the community, to help families in need, really fits the guard spirit,” he said. “We serve our communities. This is just another chance to help the members of our community here in Utah.”
He moved through the aisles with his wife, searching for items on a wish list belonging to children they’d never meet. “I’m not a big shopper,” he joked, “but trying to find things that really fit the boy or girl we’re shopping for… it brought out the little boy and little girl in my wife and me.”
Volunteers often describe the experience this way—part scavenger hunt, part quiet reflection on what it means to make a child feel remembered. Kim Harley, a vice president at Goldman Sachs, has been volunteering for years. “This is my favorite event of the year,” she said. “You shop for kids who otherwise may not have had a Christmas. It centers you on the real spirit of the season.” Her colleague Leah Ekblad feels the same. “It’s fun to go and shop for all the kids and make sure you’re meeting their wants and needs,” she said. “It brings the community together.”
Another major force behind Sub-for-Santa is L3Harris. Each December, employees and executives place Christmas trees throughout their buildings. Instead of ornaments, the branches hold cards—each with the name of a military child and a list of toys or clothing. Employees take a card, buy the items, and return them to the tree. As the season goes on, gifts pile up beneath those trees, ready to be combined with the items purchased during the shopping events. The system is simple, but the impact is powerful. One anonymous card taken in a hallway can turn into the gift a child has been hoping for all year.
Behind the scenes, the Utah National Guard’s Soldier and Family Readiness office—known as the J9—makes the program possible. They work year-round to support service members and their families with financial readiness, deployment planning, and basic assistance. When the holidays approach, they add Sub-for-Santa coordination to their already full workload.
Marcie Mock, a Guard spouse who works in the J9 office, explained how families access the program. “Anybody who has experienced a hardship during the year and needs a little assistance at Christmas can apply,” she said. The program has been helping families for about twenty years. Once applications are approved, the Guard Charitable Trust prepares shopping lists, gathers donations, and works with volunteers from Goldman Sachs and L3Harris.
When the shopping is done, Marcie and her team take over again. They call the final step “coordinated chaos.” Gifts are sorted, bagged, tagged, and prepared for pickup. Families receive the items unwrapped so they can take part in the joy of preparing Christmas for their children. “It’s one of the highlights of my year,” Marcie said. “Knowing we can give families a little relief during a season that can be stressful—it means everything.”
Military families are used to carrying quiet burdens: long separations, unpredictable schedules, financial strain, and the constant pressure of being ready for the next mission. When money is tight, holiday worries grow quickly. Sub-for-Santa is more than a gift drive. It’s a message that these families aren’t alone.
Brigadier General Scoubes said the experience pushes him to think beyond the season. “It makes us all think about how we can help other families in need—financially or through gifts like this,” he said. “It brings the Christmas spirit much more alive.”
Volunteers echoed that feeling. “People get so consumed with hosting or finding the perfect presents,” Harley said. “This brings you back to what the season is supposed to be about.”
And for the kids? Scoubes hopes they feel the same excitement he felt picking out their gifts. “There were toys I would love to play with,” he admitted, laughing. “I hope they’re just as excited.”
Sub-for-Santa works because so many people care—employees picking cards from a tree, volunteers filling carts, donors giving quietly, and Guard families supporting one another all year long. It works because the community refuses to let any military child feel forgotten.
At the end of their interview, Harley and Ekblad looked into the camera and simply said, “Happy holidays.” It wasn’t rehearsed. It wasn’t formal. It was heartfelt—just like the effort that makes this program possible.
