PHOTOS: Santa surprises newborns at a Virginia hospital with handmade Christmas stockings

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — Santa brought the new babies at a Virginia hospital a Christmas surprise Thursday.

He dropped off handmade stockings atVirginia Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg for the babies to nestle up in and the mothers were so excited.

Many of the mothers just had the baby within the last day or so, and they said it was nice to be able to have this experience so soon after.

That's so nice of the volunteers to think of the little babies," new mother Destiny Dunn said.

Dunn and her husband are new to the area and were so grateful for the gift.

Four volunteers worked for the past year to make hundreds of these stockings for the new babies.

"We started last fall looking for a pattern, that was the hardest part because I was hoping to find one already made and then had to create one," Cindy Wruck, a volunteer at Virginia Baptist Hospital said.

Wruck said today made it all worth it.

It was wonderful to see them with their little tiny babies and Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus," Wruck said.

Santa walked around handing the stockings out for the first time.

"Such a cute idea ... If they could do that for all the babies that would be awesome," Dunn said.

The volunteers said they would! They made enough for every baby born at the hospital until the end of the year.

Wruck said she thinks this will be "a memory they'll never forget."

She said as long as the fabric is provided, the volunteers plan on carrying this tradition into next year.