“The Christmas spirit is still here!” At the Alès hospital, sick children are covered in gifts

Le père Noël s’est plusieurs fois rendu avec associations et mascottes pour donner du sourire aux enfants. DR

Throughout December, many associations and organizations donated time and gifts to the pediatric department of the Alès hospital.

This Friday, December 20, a few days before Christmas Eve. On the first floor of the Alès hospital, the caregivers of the pediatric department are busy taking care of their (very) young patients.

However, during visits to the room or in the common room, where TV coexists with games to pass the time, doctors and nurses come to give a few last gifts to the young people currently hospitalized.

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“It looks like a magic box!” A nurse hands a decorated box to Charlotte (*), 14, who is convalescing for several days. A deck of cards, pompoms, cups and a magic wand… The gift is indeed a starter kit for budding magicians, offered by the association Magie à l’hôpital, which organizes events all over hospitals in France for sick children.

Exploring the stored devices, the young teenager immerses herself in the trick learning manual, “we'll see what I can do!”, she adds.

A very present solidarity

This type of small solidarity event is not the first one experienced at the Alès hospital for children on the occasion of Christmas. The team has fond memories of the Toy Run on November 30th and its seven carts filled with toys, or the Santa Claus motorcycle ride, organized on December 8th by the mechanics center and the FFMC 30. “We also had a visit from the Raia association, the Lutins cévenols, the clowns from Bulles de rêves.” A show was put on by the Lézan Trail club, and even a well-known fast-food beechnut came with her mascots to accompany Santa Claus to the children.

Enough to make Doctor Marie-France Durand, head of the pediatric department, smile. “This year, people have been even more generous to the children”, she believes, without being able to provide any explanations. “It may be because we're talking about children. But it's especially surprising when we often hear, at the moment, that people have financial problems. We can see that the Christmas spirit is still there!”

For children who will have to stay in hospital on December 24 and 25, the service will offer them a “improved small meal, a few other gifts and a chocolate Santa Claus. It's the least they can do”. Charlotte, for her part, half-heartedly hopes to be able to spend the holidays with her family, “it all depends on the doctors' opinion”.

(*) The first name has been changed.