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Precious photos show Santa visiting infants at a Ohio hospital

Santa Claus and friend. Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

AKRON, Ohio — Santa Claus made a special trip to an Ohio hospital to spread Christmas love to babies in the newborn intensive care unit.

At Akron Children's Hospital, 66 families received a special visit from St. Nick, who held the infants and chatted with the babies' older siblings, WJW reported.

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The hospital posted some of the photographs on its Facebook page.

Baby’s first Christmas! Santa made the holiday season much brighter for 66 families and their precious babies in our...

Posted by Akron Children's Hospital on Thursday, December 14, 2017

The touching photos were courtesy of Simon Says Smile, a volunteer program provided by Black Dog Photo Co., and started by Ashley Smas and Molly Conger.

The program was started as a result of Molly’s son, Simon, who spent 82 days in Akron Children’s NICU due to an esophageal atresia and prematurity.

Simon is now a healthy 5-year-old, WJW reported.

“When your child is in the NICU you don’t have the opportunity to get regular hospital photos as you would at an adult hospital. I treasure the photos they [Black Dog Photo Co.] took for us that day and wanted to share that gift with others in the same situation,” Conger told WJW.

The photos show Santa bonding with the babies, some of whom are wearing their Christmas outfits.