Christmas has arrived at Evelina London

A drawing of Father Christmas by one of our young patients

Across our hospital we have gifts wrapped and ready for the babies, children, and young people who will be in hospital at Christmas and as ever our amazing staff will be making the day really special.

In the lead up to Christmas, our staff and supporters have been creating festive cheer for children and young people across our hospital and community sites.

Our play team have been busy running lots of activities in our hospital. Each year, our patients help our neighbour the Archbishop of Canterbury decorate a tree at his home at Lambeth Palace. This year he donated craft materials for children to make and keep, or send back their handmade decorations to go up on the Palace tree.

As well as craft skills, children and young people have been putting their painting skills to the test, designing our Evelina London seasons greeting card. We received lots of bright and creative designs which have been turned into a digital card.

Santa has been making a virtual visits to our hospital to hear children’s Christmas wishes from his home in the North Pole. He’s also been spotted in a number of festive shows and films, which MediCinema have made available for children and young people to watch whilst staying at our hospital.

Our infection control team have created a fun cartoon for our families, to reassure children of all the things Santa is doing to make sure he’s safe to come and deliver presents to children at home and in hospital. 

For our youngest patients, staff on our neonatal intensive care ward team have created a video of them reading ‘The Night Before Christmas’ for families, and have arranged hand-made Christmas cards and gifts for babies and parents. Local school children have also been making cards for our young patients.

This year is a Christmas like no other, and we’re continuing to take extra steps to keep our children and young people, and staff safe. If you have been invited for a face to face appointment, it’s important you still attend. If you need urgent care, our emergency department is always open.