Though the holiday season is all about spending time with family, the holidays remain uncertain for many in the military community.

For this family, a small Christmas miracle made it possible for a soldier to come home and reunite with his young daughters.

Trent Baskerville was deployed for nine months before he could return home to Fort Campbell. Hoping to create a holiday memory his daughters would never forget, he conspired with a certain man in a red suit to make the homecoming a complete surprise–Santa Claus.

Despite his hectic schedule of building toys, vetting children for the Nice list and collecting the blackest of coals to give to the unfortunate Naughty list, Santa visited a shopping mall in Clarksville, Tenn. It was here that Barksville’s daughters had a private audience with Santa.

Santa asked them what they would like for Christmas. “I want my Daddy to come home,” one of the little girls answered.

Barksville then appears from behind a stack of presents and gathers his kids into his arms.