"[H]ow can any adult sing this without embarrassment?"

‘I always find it a bizarre sight when I see parents and grandparents at a nativity play singing Away In A Manger as if it was actually related to reality,’ he added.

‘I can understand children being quite taken with the sort of baby of whom it can be said “no crying he makes”, but how can any adult sing this without embarrassment?’

He said Jesus would have been ‘abnormal’ if he had not cried as a baby. ‘If we sing nonsense, is it any surprise children grow into adults and throw out the tearless Jesus with Father Christmas and other fantasy figures?’ he added.