Santa Claus, Christmas trees, reindeer pee and a mysterious, yet well-known psychedelic mushroom are all related to each other according to some historians. But are the claims simple humbug?
According to NPR, BBC, The New York Times, The Atlantic and Live Science there’s a possibility that most of the West’s Christmas traditions—from hanging stockings to decorating a tree—come from indigenous Siberian myths related to a psychedelic mushroom called amanita muscaria.
Amanita muscaria has a thick body, white stem and red cap with white spots. Sound familiar? If you squint hard enough, it’s the spitting image of Ol’ St. Nick, himself. (It’s also the same mushroom that Mario eats to grow bigger, but let’s keep that drawer closed for now.)
Amanita muscaria grows from the roots of certain trees in a symbiotic relationship. The mushroom produces enzymes that break down nutrient sources for the tree, and the tree provides water and carbohydrates to the mushroom.
This symbiotic relationship has a lot to do with the mystery surrounding this fungus. Unlike the common psilocybin-bearing cubensis, which is incredibly easy to cultivate indoors, amanita muscaria has to be cultivated in a natural setting, where it can work with the local trees.
It has never been grown in a lab and cannot be commercially cultivated, meaning there isn’t much money in researching the mushroom. Although it’s been used for centuries by humans, there just isn’t a large body of knowledge surrounding it like there is with cubensis.
Amanita muscaria is legal in New Mexico, but getting a hold of it would be difficult, and it isn’t recommended for amateur foragers. The raw mushroom is toxic, and it must be prepared in a special way for human consumption. The trip is also often described as unpleasant and difficult, making it a bad choice for recreational use. At least one person is known to have died from ingesting the mushroom.
Nevertheless, it’s believed that the mushroom played at least some role in Siberian shamanic practices and some historians claim that there’s a direct line between those practices and modern Christmas traditions.
The theory has taken hold in the press, where the very idea of a psychedelic Santa is just too enticing to pass up, and a number of versions have made it into the public consciousness.
One version claims that the Christmas tree, with its bounty of presents at its base, could be symbolic of the mushrooms’ symbiotic relationship with tree root systems. Another claims that Siberian shamans, who used the mushroom to contact reindeer spirits, would hang amanita muscaria on trees to dry, a practice reflected in our modern ritual of trimming the Christmas tree. Alternatively, it’s claimed that they placed mushrooms above the fire to dry, resulting in the modern tradition of stockings on the mantle.
Another version says that shamans, garbed in ceremonial red and white, would collect the mushroom in a sack and travel in reindeer-powered sleighs from house to house, spreading fungal cheer. Sometimes, the snow was too deep and they’d have to drop the goodies down the chimney. Ho, ho, ho!
All of these are loosely based off of a version that references the indigenous people of Lapland, Finland, where the harsh climate limits food sources. Shamans supposedly saw reindeer eat the mushroom and tried it out themselves. The toxicity of the mushrooms would have made them sick, but they would have also noticed some of the psychedelic effects.
According to this theory—made popular by journalist Jeremy Seal, but possibly invented by writer and artist Jeffrey Vallance—some enterprising Laplander shaman ingested reindeer urine and realized that it carried all of the psychedelic effects without the toxins.
Vallance doesn’t point to any source for these claims, though, and the Vallance article is riddled with bizarre factoids that he holds up as proof of his outlandish theories that Santa Claus is an iteration of an archetypal character known as the “Wild Man” (theories which, he claims, came to him while gazing upon a statue of the Wild Man that depicted him as red with a white beard—even though the idea had been around since the late ’90s).
He writes that the shamans drank the urine to “fly high,” and immediately moves to point out that “the slang term ‘sleigh riding’ refers to a drugged-out state, while ‘reindeer dust’ is another word for cocaine,” as if modern American slang has some sort of connection to indigenous Siberian shamanic practices. It’s a great read.
The idea may have entered Vallance’s mind if he ever came upon the work of writer R. Gordon Wasson, who reported that some brave shamans would ingest the mushrooms themselves and then distribute their own urine to the tribe, taking on physical illness to deliver religious experiences to their community.
Again, there is no reputable source for this claim, and Wasson says he hasn’t seen the practice himself. But it could make for a unique holiday tradition if one were so inclined.
As for all the other theories involving red-and-white ceremonial wear, reindeer worship and tree symbolism, there’s not much evidence of any of it, and most experts say it’s unlikely. The level of importance that the mushroom had in Siberian shamanic rituals is debatable, and serious researchers say it’s near zero.
Which brings us to an uncomfortable topic:
There’s no reason to rush telling your kids that there’s no psychedelic Santa. This holiday is about wonder and mystery, and you don’t need to take it on yourself to spoil it for them. They’ll get curious enough on their own and will likely start asking questions about reindeer pee without your nudging. Just be prepared to deliver the answers with love and understanding.