9 days before Christmas, Santa spent some time warming up for the big night at UHNBC this morning (Friday).
Santa visited around 18 children in the pediatric hospital wing, bringing toys and gifts for all.
“It means a lot, my girls were ecstatic to hear you were coming early,” Karissa Wright, a mother in the wing told Santa.
Her daughters, Mishaila (10) and Jayla (4) both got presents from Santa, and were very excited to see him.
The family is staying in the wing with Wright’s newborn, who is just 8 days old, an early Christmas gift.
“They have been very helpful,” Wright said, about the hospital staff. “It is very relaxing and reassuring that they have been so good with my baby. Not only with her, but myself and my partner.”
She said she is hopeful that they can all be back home in Hazelton by Christmas.
Santa has been coming to the wing and visiting for the last 20 years, but this was his first time back since the pandemic.
“It is extremely rewarding, I have the best job because I get to bring joy to the kids,” said Sarah Christensen, a Child Life Specialist at UNHBC.
“And it is fun for us too,” added Sandra Wyatt, a retired Child Life Specialist, “because we are just kids in big bodies.”
Wyatt has been responsible for contacting the North Pole and arranging for a visit from Santa for many of the last 20 years.
She remembers one year, a girl was in their care who was from out of town over Christmas day.
“Her main concern was, how is Santa going to find her when we don’t have a chimney here, and she doesn’t live here, and how would he know because she already sent her letter.”
Wyatt and her crew went straight to work.
“We made signs from the main entrance… to her room,” she said.
“I talked to security who told her ‘I will let him in the side door.'”
On Christmas morning, the girl was overjoyed to see a room full of gifts, knowing that Santa had found her after all.
“You are alleviating their stress by doing something normal,” Wyatt said.
“Our job is to make their situation as normal as possible… we all know why they are here, they know why they are here.”
“If they can go home with a positive memory, instead of ‘I got 20,000 needle sticks,’ it is a bonus for them.”