Christmas, while full of festivities and feelings of good cheer, is also a very depressing time of the year for some people.

You see the store displays, advertisements, and movies about families hanging out together smiling and having a good time, and if you happen to be alone during the holidays, it doesn't feel too good. In fact, it can feel downright hopeless because it looks like everyone's shoving glee and cheer right in your face and you can't have it.

And one German man, a widower who didn't want to spend Christmas alone, took a shot in the dark and put out a note asking if anyone would welcome him into their home for a small gathering.

He put the note up at his local supermarket:

"Where can a lonely pensioner and widower find a place in a small group for Christmas?"

A shopper by the name of Lisa spotted the note and posted it online in the hopes of having it reach more people to ensure the pensioner had a family to spend some time with. 

The response was immediate, Lisa posted the message to one group and in moments had 30 requests for the widower to join them during the holidays. Pretty soon that number exploded and the post was shared over 6,700 times.

Lisa was floored and began looking through the invites and putting the elderly man in contact with the families so he could more easily make a decision. 

The widower says he was "very touched" and "very pleased" that so many people reached out to him.

As of now, he hasn't selected the lucky family that's going to get to hang out with him this year, but in any event, it seems like there are plenty of people willing to hang out with him on Christmas.

Who knows? Maybe he'll have some new friends as a result.