I DO not understand why Mary Machen (Letters, December 16) has to introduce the ugly stain of Middle East politics into the beauty of children’s Nativity plays and the joy they give to their audiences.

These plays are not about Bethlehem, Ms Machen. They are about the very things all humans (including Israelis) wish for – ie peace, love, the innocence of children yet to be corrupted by the prejudices of the adult world.

For a short while we watch these plays, we are transposed to a far better place. Many years ago, I was so touched by my daughter’s Nativity play, I came home and wrote a poem to try and express my feelings. It included the lines:

They showed me a world, a world I’d once known
A world that I yearn for now that I’m grown
A world without hatred, without war, without pain
A world that I wish I could enter again.

I am not naive, neither am I religious, but the sentiments of the Nativity play are such a welcome change from the usual diatribe of greed, corruption, hate and lies with which we are fed on a daily basis.

David Lyon, Kingfisher Close, Huntington, York.