A High for Santa Without a Ladder

Gusty winds kept Santa Claus from his traditional climb up a fire ladder outside Children’s Hospital of Orange County on Thursday, but none of the excited patients seemed to notice. He got a bunch of big hugs anyway.

Santa left his sleigh behind and helped steer an Orange Fire Department truck onto the hospital grounds. Normally, he would climb the ladder to wave to kids on higher floors, but this year he jingled his bells from below to the delight of his audience.

“We wanted to keep Santa intact for the big day,” hospital spokeswoman Andrea Pronk said.

Santa was helped by Orange firefighters in distributing gifts to nearly all of the 130 hospitalized children, including those in the intensive care units and the cancer ward.

“Those kids can’t leave the ICU, so to get to see Santa was really a big treat for them,” Pronk said. “The parents really appreciate the fact that people come to the hospital and make special efforts to raise everyone’s spirits.”

The hospital has more events in store for young patients. Next week, they will get to talk to Santa at the North Pole via ham radio, and St. Nick is expected to drop in a few more times.

While the hospital tries to discharge as many children as possible for Christmas--even just for the day--some patients are too weak to risk it, Pronk said.

For those children, toys donated by the community will appear beside their beds on Christmas morning.