The outside world can seem miles away when you’re a parent and your newborn is in NICU.

But nurses and volunteers have brought Halloween festivities into the NICU ward at St Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri by giving each baby a tiny Halloween costume and trick or treat surprise.

Michelle Manuel, the hospital’s director of media relations told ABC News, “The parents were able to choose their babies’ costumes to match the babies’ personalities.

“The idea is to be able to allow parents to have a sense of normalcy. In the NICU you might be there for weeks or months and this is to help spend that first Halloween and those special first moments together — make those special family memories with us.”

The felt costumes have ranged from super heroes to butterflies, to ladybugs and Kansas City Royals players.

Each family also received a “trick or treat, smell my feet” card with the newborns’ tiny footprints, a hand-crocheted pumpkin filled with treats and a Halloween book that the parents and their babies can read together next year.

The costumes and gifts have been received with such a positive response, the staff are planning to do something similar for the 12 Days of Christmas.