2014 Christmas Mail - closing date 8 December 2014.

From the Department of Defence website:

People who still wish to send general care parcels to deployed personnel this Christmas can do so through the Australian Forces Post Office box address below, which will be open from Monday 3 November to Monday 8 December 2014.

An Australian Defence Member
AFPO 60
Australian Defence Force NSW 2890

In order to ensure an equitable distribution of parcels it is requested that all donations be gender-neutral, and be addressed to 'An Australian Defence Member', not to a specific job title, trade or unit member.

Unfortunately Defence cannot accept care packages for Military Working Dogs or Explosive Detection Dogs due to strict care requirements relating to both their diet and their training programs.

To ensure that all items are able to be delivered to our deployed forces, donors are asked to ensure that packages are of non-perishable goods. Previous experience has shown that items that are not robustly packaged can break open during transit, which can lead to infestation and spoilage. Defence cannot send perished or infested items overseas.

All items must be submitted to an Australia Post outlet by 8 December 2014, and meet the requirements and restrictions detailed below.

Please ensure that parcels do not contain alcohol, pornography or culturally offensive/inappropriate written material.

Please note that general care parcels received by Defence after this date and those that exceed our ability to distribute will be donated to Australian charities such as the Salvation Army.

Please visit the website for more information: http://www.defence.gov.au/events/christmas/support.asphttp://www.defence.gov.au/events/christmas/support.asp

What not to send:

No religious material.

No porn, naked or immodestly clothed people.

No chocolate, but I've sent Tim Tams.

No toys or food for the dogs, it interferes with their training.

No cigarettes.

No alcohol.

No liquids, they can break or leak and destroy others' Christmas mail.

Nothing home baked, it will be thrown out.

No clothing.

Things to send:

Lollies from Australia (minties, individually wrapped lollies, chupa chups, lolly pops)

Coffee/tea/chocolate - I send sachets of coffee which you just add water to (Nescafe and Moccona make them and Aldi have their own brand).

Other food items I've sent are: crisps, Mac & Cheese, cuppa soups, tins of flavoured tuna (Aldi have some with crackers which are not expensive and taste pretty good), tins of chicken, smoked oysters, other tinned fish (snack size tins).

Remember, it's going to be winter in the middle east in December, and it gets cold!!

No clothing, but a sand scarf in an appropriate camouflage colour (think the desert colours - sand!), would probably be appreciated. Must be made of 100% cotton, usually interlock (t-shirt material), and camoflage colours must be kept in mind. Instructions on how to make a sand scarf can be found here. PLEASE NOTE: you do not need to email the person at the end of the instructions. Just put the sand scarf in your parcel!

Envelopes and small writing pads, biros, it's sometimes difficult to get writing materials.
A self addressed envelope will enable the recipient, if s/he has time, to write to you. Don't expect to receive a reply, feel good that you made someone happy at Christmas to get a parcel. Enclose a note from yourself if you can, like a penpal would, or a postcard from where you live.

BX or B2 sized boxes (the Post Office should be able to help), and remember to keep the parcel under 2kg, or you will have to pay full postage to Sydney.

Good luck, and thank you so much for thinking of our deployed military members.