I know I am not alone in being completely fed up with the rash of advertising on television and in the papers showing tables laden with food and in particular various parts of dead animals.

It seems Christmas cannot be Christmas without the mass slaughter of millions of poor animals.

If there were a Jesus Christ I am sure he would be as sickened as I am at this way of celebrating his birth.

The Governments refusal to allow CCTV in slaughterhouses signals that something is very wrong here and they just do not want people to know the truth.

When I was younger, before I understood fully the cruelty involved with meat production and farming generally, we would eat poultry at Christmas.

Dad had to visit farms as part of his job and would bring home a free range duck, goose or chicken but that was it – we did not eat them routinely as people do now.

Perhaps a meat free Christmas would be an exceptional treat this time of year – healthier for us and kinder for the animals.

Philip Beaven Merton Avenue Swindon