FOLLOWING a shopping trip to St Helens I would like to say how nice the Christmas lights were, especially now that the Christmas! The lights are bright and modern and my only complaint is that there could have been more of them.

However, search as I might I could not find a crib or Nativity scene in town. There is usually one outside the town hall or in Church Square. I do hope that this is not intentional.

I sincerely hope the council does not intend to spend our money on new lights and decorations, Christmas Trees, fairs, etc and leave out or ignore the reason for all the celebration. By not displaying the crib they would effectively be taking the Christ out of Christmas. Then we must ask: "What are we celebrating?"

Claiming that Nativity scenes are offensive to other religions is not believable. Muslims, Jews and Christians have a shared heritage and Jesus Christ is part of all our histories. However, secularising Christmas is offensive to Christians. This attitude, rather than being inclusive as is possibly intended, is in fact more likely to cause division and conflict.

It would be better to not celebrate Christmas at all than to spend our hard-earned money celebrating nothing!

Maria G. Overend (via e-mail, address supplied)

A call by the Star to the council confirmed that the crib was to be found in the Hardshaw Centre (Editor)