It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Santa Claus in a helicopter!

RIO RANCHO — Santa Claus arrived at Sandoval Regional Medical Center in style, making his way to Rio Rancho via helicopter Dec.19.

“Santa flew in a helicopter,” Myli San Roman excitedly said. The 4-year-old also mentioned that for Christmas she would like, “A spaceship, and a carriage, and socks, a panda, and a toy car.”

With just one week away until Christmas, Santa took some time out of his busy schedule to provide some holiday cheer for the patients and staff members at UNM Hospital and UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center.

While at SRMC, Santa and his entourage visited every level of the hospital checking in with the staff and many patients.

“We always come into Albuquerque this time of year so we can get our biscochitos, our tamales, and I like red and green chile, in case anyone listening out here is interested to know, because those are Christmas colors of course,” Santa said. “Now, we try to visit all the hospitals and see all the kids we can, and we see the grown-up kids, too.”

Joining Santa for his 15th year of visiting hospitals was Mrs. Claus, the Grinch, elves and a couple of dogs: Jake and Choco.

PHOTOS: Santa visits SRMC

“We look forward to Santa’s visit every year at SRMC. He, along with Mrs. Claus and the elves, bring so much joy to our team, our patients and their families. We appreciate everyone who helps spread holiday cheer throughout our hospital. It’s truly a magical and fun day,” SRMC President Jamie Silva-Steele said.

One of the patient’s (a 4-year old receiving treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia at UNM Hospital) father dressed up as the Grinch and visited children along with Santa.

Santa went to UNM hospital first and visited several kids at UNM Child Life, delivering stuffed animals to the kids. Albertsons donated more than 3,000 stuffed animals and other donated clothes. Toys were set up for the young patients to pick for free.

SRMC’s week has been filled with many holiday festivities. Some of the events Dec.19 included cookies, eggnog, an ugly sweater contest and, of course, a visit from Father Christmas.