Gordon Cunningham (Letters, December 13) is correct in pointing out that no one knows when Jesus was born and that the Christian choice of December 25 may well derive from the pagan Roman celebration of the Sun.

BELLAHOUSTON PARK in Glasgow was awash with colour yesterday as thousands of flag-waving pilgrims welcomed Pope Benedict XVI for an open-air Mass.

TOMORROW and on Friday we will brave the busiest travelling days of the year to be with our families, or they come to us depending on whose turn it is to host. It’s as if the whole country stands up in a mass game of musical chairs, everyone scrambling to land somewhere, somehow at a table with a turkey and a plum pudding.