A wealthy Boston family held a christening party after the baptism of their baby. Guests and friends swarmed into their palatial home. Soon the party was in full swing. People were having a wonderful time enjoying talking to one another, eating, drinking and being merry. Suddenly somebody asked, “By the way, where’s the baby?” Instantly the mother’s heart shuddered. In questioning panic, she left the room and rushed into the master bedroom where she had left her baby sleep in the middle of their large bed. There, on the bed, she found a huge pile of guests’ coats. The mother rushed to them and began to fling them aside as she clawed down to the bottom of the pile. To her horror, she found the baby dead, smothered by the coats of her guests.
Many times, we are too overcome by the stress and the outward appearances of the season that we let the true meaning of birth of baby Jesus smothered by them.