The video will start in 8 Cancel

Get all the very latest news in Ireland straight to your email every single day Sign up! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A cafe is embracing the true festive spirit as it plans to open on Christmas Day for those less fortunate.

John Thomas and wife Nicola McGuire will open Thomas and Co in Oranmore, Co Galway, between 2pm and 5pm for anyone who is “home alone, homeless, elderly or just want some extra company”.

A post on the cafe’s Facebook page reads: “Our cafe is warm and cosy and we will have amazing volunteers who will happily sit down to chat, enjoy your company in the true spirit of Christmas.”

Nicola explained that she and John don’t mind opening up shop on Christmas Day as they usually have a quiet Christmas.

She told the Irish Mirror: “We don’t have children ourselves so we thought what could we do on Christmas Day?”

“There’s a lot of customers in the cafe, older people that live alone.

“We were talking about it one day saying ‘What do people do when they’re lonely on Christmas Day?’ and we thought ‘God wouldn’t it be lovely if the cafe were open for people to just tip in?’

“John’s dad passed away earlier this year so he kind of felt he wanted to do something in his dad’s memory.

“The response we’ve received from people is just incredible.

“We had a Taiwanese student living in Galway who contacted us. Obviously she has no family here and she has nowhere to go on Christmas Day and she asked could she come up and spend some time with us.

“I said to John, ‘if she was the only person that turned up wouldn’t that be god enough?’”