11 strangers take up woman's offer to host Christmas dinner

When PattyMcGill decided to host Christmas dinner for a group ofstrangers, she was only looking to add six extra place settings to her dining room table.

But after word got out, the Nova Scotia woman started receiving calls and emailsfrom all over the world some wanting to take her up on her offer, some offering donations and others just wanting to share their stories.

McGill eventually settled on a few special people to share her holiday meal.

"There's 11 of us now. Oops," McGill told CBC's Maritime Noon.

• Nova Scotia woman looking for strangers to join her for Christmas dinner

McGillruns a horse-therapy farm near Lunenburg. This year, her six children, who alllive in Quebec, were unable to come home for the holidays, so McGill came up with the idea to host strangers at her farmand feed them a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, including her famous "McGill stuffing."

"I've got a very happy Christmas to look forward to,"McGill said. "I'm super happy with what I do in my job and how I live my life but Christmas all of a sudden becomes a 24-hour period where everybody else is with the people they want to be with and you're not."

'Being with people matters'

Keeping McGillcompany for Christmas dinner is a Dalhousie University studentwho is Jewish and plans to bring a menorah to share her holiday traditions, a B.C. man who is a falconer inNova Scotia on contract, two mothers with their young children and a few retired people.

"A lot of them didn't have anybody here, just like me,"McGillsaid. "They just didn't have anybody and thought, 'It would be great to go to a farm and reconnect with animals. It would be great to meet different people.'"

McGill said the ingredients for the dinner are now being donated by the Foodlandgrocery store in Lunenburg;a regular volunteer at the farm is busy making stockings for all of the dinner guests;a Halifax T-shirt company has offered to make souvenir gear; and another man offered to donate money to the cause, which will go toward treats for the farmanimals.

With less than three weeks to go until Christmas, McGill says she's excited to welcome her guests and thinks she may be starting a new holiday tradition.

"Being with people matters, not necessarily gifts," she said. "People need to be with people more andlook up from their screens."