Sitting alone at a table in the dining hall of First United Methodist Church, Frank Diggs dragged the prongs of his plastic fork through a heap of mashed potatoes.

He’s spent Christmas Day here before, for several years running. But ask Diggs about his family, and he shrugs it off.

“I know most of the people down here,” he said between bites. “We’re family, in some ways.”

For 13 Christmases now, Diggs and hundreds of others have filled the seats and the round tables at the church, 946 Vt. The annual Christmas dinner served about 720 people this year through deliveries to homes and meals at the church – mostly to people who, for one reason or another, didn’t have family to spend the holidays with.

“It offers a place for anyone to come in and have a Christmas meal,” organizer Kent Ely said. He paused a moment, then added: “Together.”

Ely and other organizers brought in almost 100 volunteers to cook turkey, ham, potatoes and stuffing all Christmas morning. The food came from all over – some from community members, some from food pantries, some purchased.

By about 1:30 p.m., only a few blue plastic plates remained. Diggs and others eyed the pie table near the back, searching for the right slice.

Avin Lane, 7, left, serves a hot roll to Sterling Beebe at the Free Lawrence Community Christmas Dinner at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vt. Organizers estimated that the feast served more than 700 people both at the church and through home deliveries on Christmas Day.

But the event, Ely said, isn’t about the food – although he wasn’t shy about how good it was.

For the hundreds in attendance and at home, the dinner is a chance to sit down and eat a meal with another person by their side; to chat and eat and smile, if only for a day, for Christmas.

“It’s a chance to sit down and talk with other folks,” he said. “It’s just a chance to celebrate.”

Having helped organize the meal, Ely said the gift he felt he gave to others was a gift for him as well. With family gone this Christmas, he needed someone to sit with, to eat with.

For both Ely and Diggs, the feeling was the same. No one wants to be alone during the holidays.

And inside the church’s dining hall Monday, no one was.