Ahh, Christmas is just around the corner: a magical time full of cheer. And if there’s one person at the heart of this whole Christmas story, it’s of course Santa Claus. But did you know that the story of Santa Claus and his flying reindeer can be traced back to a rather unusual source, namely magic mushrooms? Yes, really! "Santa Claus is a modern counterpart to a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to communicate with the spirit world," says John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor at Sierra College in Rocklin, California. Today, we’re giving you five reasons why magic mushrooms explain the story of Santa Claus and his reindeer.
1. Arctic shamans distributed mushrooms during the winter solstice.
According to the theory, the legend of Santa Claus is derived from shamans in the Siberian and Arctic regions who, in late December, would visit the local people’s teepee-like homes bearing a bag full of hallucinogenic mushrooms as a gift, says Rush. "Until a few hundred years ago, these practicing shamans or priests connected to the older traditions would gather Amanita muscaria (the sacred mushroom), dry them, and then give them as gifts during the winter solstice," Rush explained. “And because snow usually blocks doors, there was an opening in the roof through which people went in and out—hence the chimney story,” another source adds.
2. Mushrooms, like gifts, are found under pine trees.
That is just one of the symbolic connections between the Amanita muscaria mushroom and Christmas iconography, according to various historians and ethnomycologists—people who study the influence of fungi on human societies. In his book "Mushrooms and Mankind" (The Book Tree, 2003), author James Arthur points out that Amanita muscaria, also known as the fly agaric, grows in the Northern Hemisphere under conifers and birch trees, with which the fungi —which are deep red with white spots—have a symbiotic relationship. This partly explains the tradition of the Christmas tree and the placement of bright red-and-white gifts beneath it, which resemble Amanita mushrooms, he wrote.
3. Reindeer were the spirit animals of shamans
Then we finally arrive at Rudolph. Reindeer are common in Siberia and Northern Europe and seek out these hallucinogenic mushrooms, as is also known among the human inhabitants of the region. Donald Pfister, a biologist at Harvard University who studies mushrooms, suggests that Siberian tribespeople ingested fly agaric and subsequently began hallucinating that the reindeer were flying. "At first glance, you might think it’s ridiculous, but it isn’t," says Carl Ruck, a professor of classics at Boston University. “Who has ever heard of flying reindeer? Among Siberian shamans, you have a spirit animal with which you can travel during your quest for visions,” Ruck continued. “And reindeer are common and well-known to people in Eastern Siberia.”
4. The various shamanic rituals
Many of the modern details of the modern American Santa Claus come from the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (which later became known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”). The poem is attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, an aristocratic scholar who lived in New York City. The origin of Moore’s vision is unclear, although Arthur, Rush, and Ruck all believe that the poet likely drew on Northern European motifs stemming from Siberian or Arctic shamanic traditions. Arthur wrote, at the very least, that Santa’s sleigh and reindeer are likely references to various related Northern European mythologies. For example, the Norse god Thor (known in German as Donner) flew in a chariot pulled by two goats, which in the modern retelling have been replaced by Santa’s reindeer, Arthur wrote.
5. Santa Claus comes from the Arctic
A historian, Ronald Hutton, told NPR that the theory of a mushroom-Santa connection is flawed. "If you look at the evidence from Siberian shamanism, which I have done," Hutton said, "you see that shamans did not travel by sleigh, usually had nothing to do with reindeer spirits, and very rarely took mushrooms to enter a trance. , and didn’t wear red-and-white clothes.” Yet not everyone seems to agree. Rush and Ruck say that shamans did indeed deal with reindeer spirits and that the ingestion of mushrooms is well documented. Siberian shamans wore red deer hides, but Santa’s color scheme is primarily intended to reflect the color of Amanita mushrooms, Rush added. “People who understand shamanism accept this story,” said Ruck. “Is there any other reason why Santa lives at the North Pole? It’s a tradition that goes back to Siberia.”
