If you haven’t had a chance to meet a Christmas elf, let me introduce you to Claudia. By day, she works tirelessly for her clients in the real estate market. But throughout the year, she is stowing away stuffed animals, puzzles, coloring books, crayons, and a plethora of children’s gifts.
Then, along with her fellow elves, she loads up brightly wrapped presents and heads for the hallways of Seattle Children’s Hospital. In a season when children are happily singing Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells, others lie in hospital beds waiting to get better.
Claudia and her elf team bring wagons full of toys and distribute them to very sick little girls and boys.
Christmas is a tough time to be in the hospital. But cheering littles ones is what Claudia knows best. Her own niece, Sophie, spent weeks and weeks at Children’s Hospital as she recovered from a heart transplant and numerous surgeries over the course of her young life. As Sophie entered her teen years, she knew how much these gifts mattered to young patients. Thus, a delightful Christmas tradition was born.
One time a little girl ran up to Sophie’s wagon full of stuffed animals, and with tender hands she picked out a soft furry dog. The girl’s own stuffie had been lost on the medical flight that had brought her here from Alaska. Now she had a cuddly friend to be with her again. Sophie knew that many children were far from home.
Sadly, Sophie lost her battle as her precious heart gave up, but Claudia and her family honor her memory by returning each year with mounds of children’s gifts.
When it comes to Christmas elves, Claudia is my favorite. She works determinedly to give children a dose of joy. If Claudia’s Christmas wish could come true it would be that just one more sick child would receive a gift. This is special medicine doctors can’t provide—but is 100% effective.