Emma Beddington’s assessment of Christmas carols (Schmaltzy, saccharine or sinister? A brief guide to the worst Christmas carols, 15 December) will be on my mind when leading services in the coming days. Away in a Manger always jarred with me because a silent baby Jesus (“no crying he makes”), while inspiring familiarity and nostalgia, renders the story unrelatable. A carol about sleep deprivation and parental angst might not provide escapism, but it would be believable.
Rev Ryan Service
Banbury, Oxfordshire
• I enjoyed Emma Beddington’s witty romp through Christmas carols, which managed to be both thoughtful and amusing, as well as knowledgable. There was one historical inaccuracy: she imagines the author of Once in Royal David’s City penning the objectionable lines “Christian children all must be / Mild, obedient, good as he” while an urchin “cleaned his chimney”.
In fact, the author in question was female: the redoubtable Mrs CF Alexander. She was also responsible for the equally schmaltzy There is a Green Hill Far Away, which led my aunt as a little girl to empathise sorrowfully with the unfortunate Painsy in the second verse, whose mysterious sufferings “we may not know, we cannot tell”.
Prof Andrew Burn
UCL Institute of Education
• A lifelong Catholic, I share Emma Beddington’s likes and dislikes of Christmas carols, including the need for Strepsils, if you sing properly, and the terrible line in Once in Royal David’s City. For several years now, I have been singing “Christian children all must be / Happy, trusted, loved and free”, and grab this opportunity to spread my version.
John Duffy
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
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