There has been much speculation as to who will make the Christmas number-one spot in the record stakes.

Well, for me, there is and always has been one outright winner, the inimitable Bing Crosby's heartfelt crooning of White Christmas.

First sung in the film Holiday Inn in the Forties, it never fails to send us dreaming on the "magical road to Christmas".

It is hard to imagine the current crop of singers - so reliant on the help of technology in the recording studio - surviving long.

In the old groaner's day, the voice spoke for itself, virtually unaided - a virtuoso performance indeed.

Nevertheless, a round of applause for the also-rans.

-F R Harris, Hangleton Way, Hove