"How do reindeer fly Santa's sleigh around the world? If you guessed hallucinogenic mushrooms, you might actually be right.

"It almost sounds sacrilegious to mix psychedelics and winter festivities, but there's actually a fair amount of historical evidence that suggests modern Christmas was borne out of trippy traditions. From flying reindeer to presents and ornaments to the bearded man with the North Pole address, a ton of iconography overlaps with indigenous psychedelic shamanism in Siberia and northern Europe.

"Some historians argue that Santa Claus is actually a "magic" mushroom shaman, as indicated by his red and white outfit. It resembles the psychedelic fly agaric mushroom, a fungus as bright red as Rudolph's schnoz sprinkled with white flecks like snow. Drawing on this and other evidence, quite a few scholars subscribe to theories that numerous Christmas traditions spawned from pagan psychedelic rituals, even if it's not a mainstream belief.

"But how much truth is there to this hallucinatory history?" - Troy Farah

Article: The Strange, Psychedelic History of Christmas