During last year's ugly sweater-making, staff of the neonatal intensive care unit at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center created several dozen felt sweaters for the babies in the unit. Staff will gather again this year for the crafting.
For the second year in a row, staff at Avera Health's flagship hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, are putting a twist on the popular "ugly sweater" concept — by bringing it to babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.
As they did last year, employees of Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center's NICU soon will be assembling as a group — equipped with piles of fun craft supplies — to create dozens of ugly sweaters for the NICU babies.
A winter 2023 NICU patient is adorned with an ugly sweater.
This year, team members will gather off-site at their annual NICU staff Christmas party Dec. 20 to create the sweaters. They'll have a large pile of Christmasy craft accessories, such as felt ornaments, snowflakes, Santas, reindeer and candy canes, that they will affix with hot glue to red and green felt "sweaters." They'll be limited only by their imaginations.
The team members will likely create about 40 sweaters. Back in the NICU, they will lay the felt creations atop the babies during the week of Christmas.
Tanya Barnhart, who has been a nurse in Avera McKennan's NICU for 23 years, says the hospital already had been similarly creating costumes for the NICU babies for Halloween when she saw the idea on Pinterest to make ugly Christmas sweaters for babies.
The prior gathering gave staff an opportunity to enjoy some holiday fun as a group, according to the event's organizer.
She says the staff had a lot of fun last year making the sweaters, and they're looking forward to this year's festivities. She says NICU staff can see a lot of tough things day to day, so it's nice to take some time away for frivolity.
She says families with a baby in the NICU also can be under a lot of duress. It can be difficult to handle the lack of control as well as the uncertainty and anxiety that parents and other loved ones can experience with an ill infant. "And no one wants to be spending their holidays in the hospital," she says.
Barnhart says she and other NICU staff love to see families brighten up when they see the silly sweaters on the babies. She says this bit of holiday cheer "can make families so happy!"
Last year, some moms whose babies were in the NICU helped make the sweaters, including the woman at left. At right is NICU nurse Kerissa Gauer. This year, only staff will be making the sweaters, since the crafting will take place at their holiday party.