The gift of joy: Children's Wisconsin brings holiday cheer to patients and families

WAUWATOSA, Wis. (CBS 58) — It's a very special time of year at Children's Wisconsin's main campus, as the holidays bring a much-needed glow to the hospital.

Festivities always begin the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, with the appropriately-named Holiday Kick-off Parade.

"We have our very own version of a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for all of our patients and families to see," said Leslie Scott, a certified child life specialist at Children's. "Whether they're down here in the lobby, or we have Zoom where patients can watch from their rooms."

It's the third year of the events - ideas curated by Scott and her team.

"Our patients and families are missing out on all of the traditions that they have at home," Scott explained. "One of the things that a couple of my patient families would talk about is watching the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade together, and so I thought, what a great way to kick everything off, if we created our own parade."

Scott reached out to staff in October asking for departments to join in, and she got a rousing response.

"There are some units and departments that have been working on their floats even before I send out my email, because they know it's coming," Scott said.

One of the MVPs this year: the hospital's safety team, with their Brewers-inspired appearance.

"The Brewers had such an amazing season, we thought lets celebrate that and be the Racing Sausages and build AmFam field," said Tanya Epping, a safety specialist.

Her department has been grilling up their plan all year.

"These are made out of corrugated, so we rolled each other up and had a lot of fun," Epping said. "Each of us individually took time to decorate them."

Their parade appearance was a grand slam.

"It was super exciting, all the energy that the staff and the patients were giving us," Epping described. "Patients were giving us high fives, we did a mini race, and it was really exciting."

40 different departments made their own floats for the big day, enchanting patients with themes like Frozen, Dr. Suess, Moana, even Santa and his reindeer.

"There are so many patients that will say I've been looking forward to this all day, or families will say, this is the first time we've seen our patient smile since they've been here," Scott explained.

That joy touches everyone in the hospital, including the staff members.

"They have to do some really hard things as staff, just like our patients and families have to do some really hard things as patients," Scott said. "Being able to have something where you can step outside of that and create some joy together, I think, is the best way to celebrate the holidays."

That parade is just the season's greeting.

In December, the Holiday Lights Parade shines right outside the hospital, with floats from Ingleside Hotel's Country Christmas and Jellystone Park's Christmas Carnival of Lights, joined by decorated Jeeps.

("Many families are going to those drive throughs, so we had to figure out a way to be able to kind of mimic that here," Scott explained.

December also brings their winter carnival, Christmas tree farm, and local fire departments bring the magic on Christmas Day.

"We have Santa up on a ladder to wave on Christmas morning to all of the patients and families," Scott said.

It's all part of the job for the Child Life team: making every day at the hospital a little bit better.

"I am amazingly blessed to be able to work in a job where I get to contribute a little bit of joy in a really difficult environment sometimes," Scott said.

Just like Santa Claus, they deliver Christmas cheer to those who need it most.

"It is a lot of work that goes into it," Scott explained. "To see the smiles and to see just how much the staff enjoys it, how much the patients and families enjoy it, it makes every stress worth it."