Sir – Both your Christian correspondents (Letters, December 19) misquote me. I did not write “unacceptable doctrines” as Rick Taylor claims, and I did not refer to the unacceptable nature of carols generally as John Batey implies, which makes his question “Does he mean Jingle Bells …. The Twelve Days of Christmas…. ?” completely superfluous.

What I actually wrote (Letters, December 12) was “The unacceptable nature of some of the doctrinal words” (when played repeatedly in public supermarkets), and I quoted two examples. It is true that Christ being born to save man from sin is truly Christian doctrine, as Rick Taylor points out, but that doesn’t mean that it “holds true” for everybody; and I would have thought anyway that some Christians themselves would feel it rather irreverent to turn this theological message into an entertaining seasonal soundtrack, whose basic purpose is to encourage people to spend more money on booze.

Oxford Christians would not even permit a call to prayer from the mosque in Cowley Road, which I was in favour of, and far from being “Scrooge-like” (Rick Taylor again) I celebrate the winter solstice much like anybody else. I would suggest that, in this country, very few people indeed give much thought to its impact on their salvation. Similarly at Easter, it is certain Christians who (Scrooge-like ?) try to turn thoughts away from springtime and chocolate towards gruesome capital punishment and salvation.

Roger Moreton, Oxford