COVID-19 is changing the way Americans plan to celebrate the winter holidays this year. But, in Alaska, the National Guard found a way to carry out a beloved Christmas tradition for several distant Native American communities. An Alaska National Guard helicopter recently landed on a frozen field in Stevens Village, home to about 30 people. Townspeople hurried to the landing field after seeing the helicopter land. They watched as the soldiers unloaded boxes containing gifts for almost everyone in the community. Then the helicopter flew away. The yearly National Guard gift transport known as “Operation Santa Claus,” began in 1956.