D-Day veteran Fredrick Bates, 89, was one of 20 elderly people who enjoyed an early Christmas lunch at the Hanwell Fields Community School in Banbury on Monday.
The Christmas lunch was organised by the Ruscote, Hardwick and Neithrop neighbourhood team at Thames Valley Police.
Sergeant Jade Hewitt said: “We were bringing the community together, the young and the old.”
The school’s students, aged from three to 10, helped out with Christmas decorations, dancing and singing.
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She said: “A lot of elderly people are having Christmas day on their own. Fred doesn’t have any family close by.”
Mr Bates, of Banbury, joined the army in 1943 aged 18. He was transferred to the 1st Battalion Dorset Regiment and participated in the Normandy landings in 1944 that began the invasion of German-occupied Western Europe.
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