Doing their part to make season’s wishes come true

It’s not been a good month for Dr. Noah Federman, several of his young patients seemingly over the hump at Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA only to have cancer return, and end their lives.

“It’s not like a 3-year-old who really doesn’t know what’s going on or what it’s going to miss,” Dr. Federman says. “I work with adolescents, and they know what it means when you tell them they are going to die.”

And yet, Dr. Federman says, he loves his job, treating older kids with bone cancer, a cancer so devastating it means telling four out of every 10 there is nothing more that can be done for them.

“You get so close to these kids and then you lose them,” he says, and he almost sounds depressed -- until an hour passes, the hospital’s Christmas party begins, and Dr. Federman arrives with his arm around Alfredo.

“One of our success stories,” Doc says with a grin, while trying to hide a card he’s just been handed -- which reads: “To World’s Best Doctor.”

DOUG O’NEILL cannot find the John Wooden Center and the Christmas party. O’Neill trains horses for a living, so it is not surprising, because I can’t recall the last time one of his horses found the finish line.

I’ve got an arm around Alyssa Milano, as you might imagine, so it’s difficult to take O’Neill’s phone call. Milano is a big supporter of Mattel’s but is probably known best for dating pitchers, and I struck out James Denton, the best hitter on “Desperate Housewives.”

The Internet says she dated Brad Penny, but Penny says it’s not true. She says, “It is, but it was a bad patch in my life.”

It’s one thing to watch Penny pitch for the Dodgers, but apparently quite another to tell folks the guy who is known best in baseball for not being able to go the distance is your boyfriend.

The wife stops by. Don’t they always. Later I’ll explain I was holding Milano up, fearing someone so skinny might collapse, and I’d do it for her if she ever looks the same as she did in college.

You can just imagine how many dinners I’m going to have to buy to make up for that one.

There comes a time in the night when I have to dump Milano. She does a great job of hiding her disappointment.

IT’S TIME for Santa Lasorda to arrive.

The deal is Lasorda gets to write a Page 2 column if the Dodgers win the division title. If not, he works the party as Santa. Two years in a row so far, and now you know why I’m so happy to have Ned Colletti working as Dodger GM.

Colletti stops by the cancer pediatric ward before the party. He likes kids, as Dodgers fans know.

He visits each sick kid, his appearance a big boost for some parents encamped here 24/7 at their child’s bedside. He leaves a letter inviting families to watch the Dodgers. He promises each kid a Dodgers victory or more tickets until they see a win.

“It could end up being season tickets,” Colletti jokes, and of all the terrible GMs the Dodgers have had, he seems to have the best sense of humor.

A LINE of kids begins to form for Santa Lasorda.

Last year, Santa Lasorda visited 10-year-old Robert in the cancer pediatric ward and began pinching his toes, while demanding he love the Dodgers and get better.

Robert is doing just fine now -- no feeling any longer in his toes, I presume, but in line behind Dr. Federman, who jumps in front of everyone, to sit on Santa’s lap.

I know his boss, Dr. Kathleen Sakamoto, sometimes wonders just how old Dr. Federman really is, but you’ve got to give him this, he moves pretty good for a guy who can’t seem to go anywhere without dragging along his wife.

Everyone is surprised by Doc’s eagerness to see Santa Lasorda, because he’s a longtime Yankees fan, and the only thing Santa Lasorda has in common with New Yorkers is their expressive vocabulary.

“Maybe he just wants to ask Santa for good health or peace for all mankind,” says one of Santa’s helpers, who probably one day will become a Dodgers PR guy.

“You know what I want?” Doc says. “I’ve always dreamed of throwing out the first pitch.”

Funny, he’d have the same dream as Jason Schmidt.

SO MANY people from the world of sports, both participants and supporters, have donated this year to Mattel’s -- in fact, several thousand dollars arriving just this week.

Some came with a note, others with just a check enclosed.

“My daughter was treated at both CHLA and Mattel’s during her 16-month battle with aggressive brain cancer,” e-mailed Gary Painter. “She left us on Christmas Eve last year and we are grieving, but we have been touched forever by the doctors and nurses that did all they could to save her life.”

Or, as Steve Lord wrote, “Those of us who lost children somehow can’t stop feeling like we should remain in the shadows because our stories do not have happy endings. But the day my beloved son, Damien, died, I ran into one of his doctors, and with tears in his eyes, he said, ‘We think we can save them all.’ These are great people. I’d just like people to know it.”

MAYBE SO, but right now Doc is claiming squatter’s rights to Santa Lasorda’s lap, and the kids in line can tell you a thing or two about who is naughty or nice.

“I got a pretty good arm,” Doc is saying, and Santa Lasorda is rolling his eyes, but he checks just the same with the guy who signed Schmidt, and Colletti agrees to put Federman on the mound.

Not a shock when you consider he also put Mark Hendrickson on the mound.

Colletti goes a step further Monday and signs admitted drug user Gary Bennett -- just so he’ll have someone to catch the pill Doc intends on firing.

Doc is happy, though, no matter who catches the ball, and as some months go, it’s just nice to see.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.