Your report (It's A Gift, January 19) on the home life of the Kissacks, warmed my heart. I'm so pleased their little holiday break wasn't ruined by uncertainty about the purchase of their £400,000 house.

It's good also to know that the poor lady would not have had her belief in Santa Claus destroyed - there was also a bag of goodies from Harvey Nichols to fall back on. It probably cost more than what some of your readers were able to spend on their entire families.

Now that everything has ended well, I do hope that those builders and decorators will jump to it and not spoil the Kissacks' dream.

Viv Wellburn,

Milner Street,

York.

..it is perhaps appropriate to put your Christmas present story in context.

We have lived in York in rented accommodation for six months and are enjoying the friendly welcome we have received.

We had been busy looking for a home in the city since before our arrival without luck. When the opportunity to buy a family property so near the city arose we were eager to conclude the purchase quickly and, if possible, before Christmas.

My wife and children were fully involved in the decision to buy and it was only the timing of exchange of contracts that made it a Christmas present (for us all).

The spin put on the story by the paper was perhaps flippant and no doubt undeserving of front page exposure, but at heart a harmless human interest piece.

The price paid for the property is simply reflective of the prices expected by sellers of such properties in York.

I would have been happier had such information been kept private, but the fact is that the property is being sold through estate agents from whom such details are made public.

Nigel Kissack,

York.

...I find the leading article It's a Gift, both frivolous and distasteful. Why have you given a wealthy couple space in your paper to boast about their privileged lifestyle?

Why does a family of four need a house with five bathrooms anyway?

Please, stick to news and local concerns.

Mrs Dorothy McCaughan,

Horsman Avenue,

Cemetery Road,

York.

...it is a sad day when a local paper of the stature of the Evening Press is so unable to find real news items and comment for its pages that it descends to allowing York's latest wealthy incomers to parade their crass materialism on the front page of the paper and to commend it in the editorial.

This is particularly inappropriate at a time when my own employer, the NHS, is even more mired in crisis than usual, and even relatively prosperous cities like York continue to have problems with homelessness and areas of real depreciation.

Dr Jonathan Blakeborough,

Arundel Grove,

Woodthorpe,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.