SOUTH BEND, Ind.- Babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Beacon Hospital had a special visitor on Thursday night.

Santa visited the babies and their parents to spread joy and Christmas cheer to the families who would not be home for the holidays.

He brought candy for the parents and took pictures with the babies in an effort to make their first Christmas together more memorable.

The hospital dressed the babies up as elves for the occasion and gifted the parents with an ornament holding a measuring strip inside indicating how long the baby was at birth.

New father, Patrick Wensing said, “(Being in the hospital) is not what we envisioned Christmas being like, and so it brought a lot of joy for it to be a little bit of normalcy amongst a lot of unexpected.”

After visiting with families in the NICU, Santa then went to the pediatrics unit to read to the older children there and bring the Christmas spirit to them as well.

This is the second year that Santa has come to the hospital for a special visit.