Hospital hallways on the fifth floor of University of Illinois Chicago Hospital turned into a costumed procession Friday, as roughly 200 UI Health staffers dressed up and paraded past the beds of hospitalized children for the hospital's annual Halloween celebration. Among them was 18-year-old Brianna Davidson, dressed as Toy Story's Jessie, and five-day-old Tatum Chandler, wrapped in a hand-stitched pirate costume sewn by nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit.
The parade is a tradition that has run for more than a decade at UI Health, according to the Chicago Tribune, which first reported on Friday's event. In 2025, hospital leadership, doctors, nurses and other staff dressed up and paraded through the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, passing out candy as they went, according to a separate account from UIC Today. Patients also took part in pumpkin decorating and a pizza party, with popular costumes that year including the Avengers, witches, Minions and Labubu dolls, per the same account.
A Teenager Who Has Seen Years of Hospital Halloweens
Davidson has been in and out of the hospital system for years, the Tribune reports, and she took part in Friday's parade at the UIC Hospital campus on West Taylor Street. She told the Tribune she was glad to join the celebration because she could not go trick-or-treating this year. For admitted pediatric patients, the parade offers a chance at something resembling childhood normalcy, even while confined to a hospital floor.
Dr. Andrew Kreppel, who specializes in pediatric infectious disease at UIC, told the Tribune the parade gives hospitalized children a moment to think about life beyond the hospital walls. He added that the kids genuinely enjoy the celebration. Staff also made a point of bringing candy and Halloween spirit to children who were unable to leave their rooms to join the parade in person, delivering treats bedside.
Tiny Costumes for the Hospital's Smallest Patients
Not every patient celebrating Friday was old enough to walk the hallway. Tatum Chandler, just five days old, stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit during the festivities, dressed in a pirate costume made by UIC nurses. Julia Ziernicki, a NICU nurse at UI Health for four years, said she and three other nurses spent about eight hours making 22 tiny costumes for babies in the unit this year.
Ziernicki said the homemade costumes give parents a lasting memory of their child, noting that families may keep the outfit as a keepsake long after discharge. That instinct to preserve the small, flat, wearable costumes echoes earlier NICU efforts at UI Health: staff nurses previously created felt costumes designed to lie flat on top of babies so the fabric wouldn't interfere with monitors or other medical devices, according to a report from University of Illinois Hospital. That earlier effort dressed up ten babies, including a pair of twins costumed as Batman and Captain America, the hospital's account notes.
Leadership Says the Tradition Is About More Than Candy
Dr. Benjamin Van Voorhees, head of the pediatrics department and physician-in-chief of the Children's Hospital University of Illinois, said Halloween costumes and playfulness bring joy to children and families navigating a hospital stay, per the Tribune's reporting. The festivities are organized through the hospital's child life program, which has led similar celebrations in past years, according to another UIC Today report.
UI Health's pediatric Halloween parade has become something of an institution on the hospital's fifth floor, with staff describing it in past years as an evolving annual tradition. One hospital account noted that for more than five years, staff had been dressing up babies and celebrating with children across the pediatric unit. The NICU's felt-costume project, meanwhile, was described by its creators as something staff hoped to repeat annually going forward.
UI Health's celebration isn't the only hospital marking the holiday this way. Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital in New York held its own Halloween parade for a 25th consecutive year this season, using costumes and candy to brighten the day for young patients, according to CNY Central. For families spending Halloween inside a hospital rather than out on the sidewalk, the costumed hallway processions have become one way to hold onto a piece of the holiday regardless of where a child spends it.
