I found this video on Boing boing awhile ago with a man creating balloon hats for people in a nursing home.

A few years ago, on Christmas day my dad and I used to go down to the Hospital and perform. My dad is a professional clown and has been performing since before I was born. Shriner clowns go out to help raise money for Children’s Hospitals and things like that. Anyways, So on Christmas day the hospital tries and sends as many of the people home as they can. So, those that are in the hospital are usually in pretty rough shape. Sometimes you’d get people who really didn’t want to see anything, sometimes you’d end up with people who didn’t care otherwise, but it was the last group that I found so interesting- those people who let you in and you made their day a little brighter with a bit of clowning around or some magic.