Nativity changes

It seems that school nativity plays are evolving to include characters and icons which 
have meaning to the children who coin them (your report, 2 December).

Who could possibly argue with that? Human cultures have had winter solstice events for tens of thousands of years and it is well known that our use of holly and mistletoe derives from ancient versions of those festivals.

The birth of Jesus myth is a nice story and a welcome contributor to our modern Yule, but Christianity doesn’t own the “real meaning” of Christmas.

Neil Barber

Edinburgh Secular Society

Edinburgh