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Urban legends are sometimes used as dark vehicles for communicating the potential worst outcomes of seemingly unremarkable acts. In the hope that those regaled with the starkly unforgiving mental images they invoke will be inspired to exercise greater care in the presence of risks they hadn't previously perceived, the creators of these tales use vivid imagery to make their points, painting in broad strokes gruesome pictures of hauntingly memorable tragedies. In this vein, the caution to not stick one's head out a moving vehicle's window becomes (in the canon of urban lore) a blood-soaked tale about a little girl on a school bus who is beheaded by a road sign, and misgivings about the relative safety of popular dance moves becomes a story about a boy who leaned with it, rocked with it a little too exuberantly, causing his neck to snap like a dry twig. That genre of tragic horror legendry includes the following examples: Although the stories recounted above of careless partygoers' causing the death of a sleeping infant by unthinkingly piling their coats onto him are naught but legend, in a tragic instance of ostension (the realization in actual life of elements key to a pre-existing urban folktale), one very real baby died in somewhat similar manner on 30 October 2011 when the 2-month-old son of 27-year-old Corrina Atuatasi of Garden Grove, California, suffocated in a pile of clothing in his mother's home. Atuatasi had left the baby unsupervised in her apartment to smoke a cigarette in the courtyard, then joined friends in another unit in the complex to have drinks with them. At some point she took a break from partying to fetch the child to the gathering, whom she had placed in a car seat. Somehow, after she and her young son returned home at approximately 4 a.m., the baby died face down in a pile of clothes. Atuatasi was arrested on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, with prosecutors asserting she either dropped the helpless infant onto the pile upon getting home or kicked him off the bed as she slept. While at first blush the legend about a baby suffocated under a pile of guests' coats would appear to be no more than a warning for parents to never to lose track of where they've laid down an infant for its nap (via the example of a grieving family's experience demonstrating why this awareness is important), the tale espouses another meaning, one aimed not merely at parents but at everyone who celebrates Christmas. The baby smothered under a pile of coats legend isn't intended as a factual account of a neglected infant's death but rather as a cautionary tale expounding upon a theme often voiced during the holiday season: that focus on the secular aspects of Christmas causes people to lose sight of the Christ child, or even to wholly forget the wee babe whose entrance into the world the festive season celebrates. The smothered infant is neglectfully left on a bed where thoughtless guests fling their coats in their rush to return to the main room and continue merrymaking, his absence from the festivity being held in his honor noticed only hours into the event, by which time he is dead. While the assembled horde remembers to party long and loud, they forget the reason why they've assembled, which is to celebrate the baptism or christening of an infant — events that, while they have their social aspects, are primarily religious. Yet the party itself eclipses its subject; in their haste to revel in the joy of the season, the thoughtless partygoers succeed with their pile of coats and casual indifference in putting the snuff on Jesus. The legend is a rather gruesome communication of Jesus is the reason for the season. It uses vivid mental images of a grieving mother clutching to her bosom the lifeless body of her adored child to drive home its admonition to not forget the Savior amid all the holiday hubbub, excitement, and commercialization inherent to Christmas.
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