I come from a family of 12 and I was about 5 in 1967 when our oldest brother was shipping out to Vietnam.
Since he would be gone over Christmas, our parents decided to have Christmas before he left. They actually got trees, yes our family has two different trees, put up the outside decorations and everything. On the night we were celebrating, one of his buddies dressed up as Santa and was passing out cookies on the street.
While my brother was gone, I remember my Mother mailing him lots of packages and even a tiny decorated Christmas tree. Thankfully, despite two tours, our brother came home and always seemed to dealt with it pretty well aside from a brief period of alcoholism.
I know that for too many families their sons and daughters never came home and many more came home, but never really came home.
OH! Maybe I should have told the story about how our mother publicly shamed the Governor before public shaming was a thing.