LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Nurse Nikki Spriggs holds her ear next to the bandaged face of 6-year-old burn patient Davey Lee, waiting for him to tell her what he wants for Christmas.
"Reindeer," he says quietly.
Davey has burns over 87 percent of his body, and doctors just took him off a ventilator, Spriggs said.
He and 5-year-old brother Travon were burned when their home in the southern Arkansas town of Smackover exploded in October, and they are among about 120 patients who will have to spend their Christmas at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
But Travon, with 60 percent of his body burned, is in a separate room and still on a ventilator. Spriggs hopes he can breathe on his own so nurses can move the brothers into the same room to spend the day with their family.
Spriggs asks Davey if he wants to see a picture of a real reindeer and he barely nods his head, the only part of his body he can move.
"You sure are doing good, sweetheart," she tells him. "We're real excited about Christmas and we're super excited about you and your brother being here with us."
Some of the young patients don't expect Santa to find them in the hospital, but gifts will be delivered in the morning.
"We hand them out one by one and open them up with the kids, the ones who can," said Charles Thigpen, a nurse in the hospital's cardiovascular intensive care unit. "We tell them that Santa Claus is here and get a big smile."
The ones who are too sick to open gifts are just as excited as the others, Thigpen said.
"Children are children no matter how sick they are," he said. "We'll put the toys around them."
Later in the day, Santa and Mrs. Claus will visit each patient, giving them a stocking, talking with them and their family, and posing for pictures.
"Even the little kids on ventilators, he'll lay down and put his head beside them," Thigpen said. "We'll get a picture no matter how sick they are."
More than 500 doctors and nurses will work Christmas Day, including Thigpen.
Cook James Harris will get up at 4 a.m. to feed families and workers. Everyone will eat for free.
"It's no sacrifice," he said. "It keeps me busy. It's just something I do and we love serving."
Cook Jill Patrick volunteered to work the Christmas shift because she loves to spend time with the patients' families.
"They look forward to it," she said. "And the food tastes better when we talk with them."