Churches anger at plan to turn Christmas into Sexmas

Church leaders have slammed a cheeky festive health guide - for branding Christmas "Sexmas". The campaign - fronted by two Santa hat-wearing "sexperts" - aims to stop revellers' risky behaviour. But furious religious leaders claim the Sexmas Survival Guide is offensive to Christians. Rev Alan Falconer, of Aberdeen's St Machar's Cathedral, said: "This detracts from the festival."

And John Deighan, parliamentary officer for the Catholic Church, said: "They don't show enough respect. "This sort of approach trivialises sex and turns it into another pastime. The more you trivialise sex, the more reckless people become."



The guide is part of a £100,000 campaign by Government agency Sexual Health Scotland. It advises festive partygoers to "slip a few condoms into your bag or pocket". And it includes a section on "the end of the night ride" which adds: "Stop tittering. We're talking about how you're going to get home."

The safe-sex campaign saw its budget slashed from £627,000 to £100,000 because of the recession. And last night a Government spokesman defended the saucy advice guide - which has the word "Sexplicit" stamped on the front. He said: "There was no campaign called Sexmas. "The word was used in one image as part of public health information to drive down rates of sexually transmitted diseases in Scotland, and absolutely no offence was intended."