Young patients at Nicklaus Children's Hospital got to pick out their own Halloween costumes on Tuesday, as Spirit Halloween of South Florida brought its annual Spirit of Children party to kids who can't trick-or-treat this year because they're stuck in the hospital. Staff filled patients' bags with candy and toys to go along with the costumes, turning hospital rooms into makeshift Halloween headquarters for families who would otherwise miss the holiday entirely.
The costume-picking event, held at the hospital, was organized for patients unable to go out on Halloween, according to WSVN 7News. Justin Graham, a manager at Spirit Halloween of South Florida, said the party brought Halloween magic and joy to hospitalized children and families and was a fun community experience, per the station's report. Spirit Halloween has partnered with Nicklaus Children's Hospital for 15 years, a relationship that has grown well beyond a single afternoon of costumes.
A Decade and a Half of Checkout-Counter Giving
That partnership has translated into real money for the hospital's Child Life program over the years. Spirit of Children reached a $1 million milestone in cumulative donations to Nicklaus Children's Child Life department through South Florida Spirit Halloween stores, according to a release from Nicklaus Children's Hospital. The model behind that total is simple: the hospital's release notes that 100 percent of donations collected in local Spirit Halloween stores stay within that community to support the nearby partner hospital's Child Life department, meaning every dollar dropped at a South Florida register has gone straight to kids being treated down the street.
The local effort is part of a much larger national campaign. Spirit Halloween's charitable foundation, Spirit of Children, has raised over $164 million for Child Life departments across more than 165 partner pediatric hospitals in the United States and Canada since it was established in 2006. The company designated mid-October as Spirit of Children Week across more than 160 partner hospitals nationwide this season, with a goal of raising $18 million during the 2025–2026 Halloween campaign.
Why Hospitals Treat Costumes as Medicine
The emotional stakes behind the costume bins are higher than they might appear. Research shows that between 50 and 75 percent of pediatric patients experience fear or anxiety before and during a hospital stay, which is why Child Life therapeutic activities are considered vital for reducing distress. Nicklaus Children's established one of the nation's earliest hospital Child Life programs back in the 1970s, introducing child development specialists to help young patients adapt to inpatient stays decades before such support became standard practice.
Nicklaus Children's has a long history behind that commitment. Founded in 1950 as Variety Children's Hospital, the institution was renamed Miami Children's Hospital in 1983 and took its current name in 2015 following a $60 million pledge from golf legend Jack Nicklaus and his wife Barbara through their foundation. Today it stands as South Florida's only licensed freestanding specialty hospital exclusively for children, with 325 licensed beds, and it treats nearly 70 percent of pediatric patients in the Miami metropolitan area.
The hospital has continued to draw major philanthropic support well beyond retail fundraising. South Florida philanthropists Helen and Jacob Shaham pledged $15 million to Nicklaus Children's in 2024, leading the hospital to name its Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute in their honor, as Hoodline previously reported. That kind of large-scale giving sits alongside the smaller, steady checkout-counter donations that Spirit Halloween customers have made over 15 years.
Costumes Amid a Billion-Dollar Holiday
The hospital party arrives against the backdrop of a Halloween season that is enormous by retail standards. The National Retail Federation projected total U.S. Halloween retail spending to reach $13.5 billion in 2026, with costume spending alone expected to top $4.4 billion. For the kids at Nicklaus Children's, though, the point of the day wasn't spending at all — it was simply getting to choose a costume like any other kid, even while confined to a hospital bed.
