London, Nov 23:  A Church in England bishop has slated parents for spoiling their children by procuring expensive Christmas gifts that are soon disposed of.

The Bishop of Hulme, the Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, said that the celebration of Christ's birth had descended into a "great orgy of excess".

“The microchip has meant that imagination and creativity are no longer encouraged by the manufacturers,” Telegraph quoted, as the bishop wrote in the latest issue of Crux, the Manchester diocesan magazine.

He said that the money spent on purchasing these toys, could instead be used for feeding and clothing a poor child.

“Maybe I'm just grumpy but I often dream of a hammer being provided for parents to enable the rapid extermination of these robotic intrusions into family life,” he added.

The bishop also criticized TV advertising campaigns for spoiling the children beyond excess.

"Toy cupboards and bedroom floors up and down the land are littered with the excretions of the latest TV advertising campaign and our children are spoilt beyond excess.”

He also said that politicians who asserted that they would end child poverty merely by reaching for a chequebook were making the same mistake.

Bishop Lowe’s criticism followed an attack by Archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev Barry Morgan who said this trend runs counter to the much more wonderful idea that each picture is part of a journey which leads us eventually to this very mysterious truth on Christmas Day. (ANI)