I WAS shopping in St Helens during the week and looking at all the Christmas decorations and various grotto type displays which I thought were really good.

However when I came to look for the crib I couldn’t find it at first.

I eventually found it in a dark, dismal corner outside the now closed TJ Hughes shop.

The background being dull grey tiles with two commercial stalls in front of it. I nearly missed it and I was looking for it.

How sad that ‘the real reason for the season’ – to celebrate the birth of Jesus is shoved out of the way – or so it seems.

Maureen Greenall, Haydock