Sir – Roger Moreton’s complaint about the ubiquity of carols being played in stores (Letters, December 5) and the responses it elicited (December 19) have moved me to put pen to paper.

Mr Moreton’s not infrequent contributions to your paper’s letters pages make his stance as an atheist abundantly plain, and as such he is perfectly entitled to take offence at the “unacceptable nature” of carols. One imagines Richard Dawkins might register comparable disapproval. And yes, there are some truly abysmal carols — witness the dire We Three Kings of Orient Are.

On the other hand, some carols have a real beauty and simplicity given by sensitive performers, and if one is sceptical about the sentiments of their words, it is possible to savour them purely aesthetically.

No, far worse than (most of) the carols excoriated by Mr Moreton is the all-pervasiveness of ‘Christmas pop’.

It is avowedly secular, has nothing to do with the supposed events in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, and every December (sometimes earlier) it is trundled out with monotonous, unflagging regularity. To my mind, exposure to it whether in supermarket, cafe, bar or anywhere else, on the continual scale we get leading up to Christmas itself is tantamount to a form of mental torture. Why should I care whether Paul McCartney is having a Wonderful Christmastime or not?

Why should I be interested in Irving Berlin’s and Bing Crosby’s leanings for a White Christmas? And why, when doing my shopping, should I have to be subjected to repeated shouts of ‘Merry Christmas’ from the likes of Slade?

Some carols can be traced back centuries, and are an integral part of the culture of Christmas, whatever one thinks of it. ‘Christmas pop’ is cheap, trashy and ersatz. It’s enough to make one long for January.

Nicholas Wilson, Summertown