Madam, - What part of the current displaying of Christmas trees is a "so gratuitous an insult to the Christian religion" (Gerald Morgan, September 9th)?
The Christmas tree has no real connection to the Christian festival. And displaying Christmas decorations several months early means that retailers have less space for the early display of their ghastly Hallowe'en wares - which surely do insult the Christian faith, replete as they are with witches, demons, ghouls and ghosts and other non-Christian imagery. And finally, if Brown Thomas insults anyone by displaying the material now, then surely postponing the display until "the season of Christmas" cannot lessen the insult.
I suspect that it is the linking of trade and profit with Christianity's most important season which really galls your many correspondents on this matter, not the premature start to the "season". Have none of your correspondents heard of those few shops which sell Christmas decorations all year long? - Yours, etc,
TONY McCOY O'GRADY,
Grangebrook Close,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Madam, - It is not the early launching of Christmas merchandise by certain retailers that forces one to realise Christmas is coming (albeit rather distantly). It is the annual moaners, making far more noise than any commercial display, who do the task far better.
Do these curmudgeons not grasp that, when you use the national media to complain about something that Store X is doing, you are the engine of cheap publicity for Store X? - Yours, etc,
DONAL McCARTHY,
Caislean Óir,
Athenry,
Co Galway.