Participants in the Operation Santa program board an Alaska Air National Guard C-17 Globemaster III at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, to deliver Santa and Mrs. Claus to Yakutat, Alaska, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus meets children after arriving at the school in Yakutat, Alaska, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Alaska National Guard soldiers and airmen shovel the roof of a building in Yakutat, Alaska. (Photo by Dana Rosso, U.S. Army National Guard via AP)
Gifts that were held in a backpacks distributed to children in Yakutat, Alaska, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Snow-capped mountains out a side window in the cockpit of an Alaska Air National Guard C-17 Globemaster III as it nears Yakutat, Alaska, Jan. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa and Mrs. Claus talk to a child in Yakutat, Alaska, in the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa program, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Backpacks filled with gifts wait to be given to children in Yakutat, Alaska, in the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa program, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Santa Claus speaks to pilot Maj. Lauren Schumacher en route to Yakutat, Alaska, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024,. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Santa and Mrs. Claus talk to a child in Yakutat, Alaska, in the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa program, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Two Humvees and participants in the Operation Santa program aboard an Alaska Air National Guard C-17 Globemaster III plane also delivering Santa and Mrs. Claus to Yakutat, Alaska, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).