Christmas is objectively a rather strange holiday. We cut down trees, bring them into our homes and decorate them. We place gifts underneath these trees and tell children that a fat, bearded, and jolly man wearing red and white brought the gifts by traveling on his flying reindeer and entering through our chimneys. Where in the world did we get the inspiration for this tradition? Christianity? Think again.
One theory that I came across on the YouTube channel AfterSkool discusses the Magic Mushroom Christmas Theory that I absolutely love. Christmas traditions can be linked to rituals around the psychadelic mushroom, aminita muscaria, which is the quintessential red and white mushroom you see in games like Super Mario Bros.
For over a thousand years, indigenous shamans of the arctic in areas like Siberia would collect these mushrooms and each year gift them to the locals. These mushrooms would be found underneath conifer and birch trees and hung up on the trees themselves to dry out as the mushrooms were slightly toxic, thus the drying would make them safer to eat. Here you can see obvious Christmas parallels with wrapped gifts underneath trees and ornaments representing the aminita muscaria as well as the red, white, and green color scheme. The shamans would then load up sacks with their mushroom yields and deliver them around the winter solstice (December 21st). The shamans were often old, bearded men and they would wear red and white in honor of the mushroom. Moreover, during this time in the arctic, there was usually snow blocking the entrances of the people’s homes, so it was more efficient for the shamans to slide the mushrooms down the smoke hole aka the chimney. Santa Clause anybody? The local reindeers would also eat these mushrooms and their urine was consumed as it contained the psychadelic compounds without the toxic elements. This is possibly why Rudolph had a red nose as it represented the reindeer leading someone on a psychadelic journey.
The origins of Christmas have already been linked to pagan holidays like Saturnalia, but this mushroom theory goes even a step further and honestly, it makes the most sense for me and it is way more interesting than Christmas being the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Here is a link to AfterSkool’s video for those interested! Merry magic mushrooms y’all!
Cosmic Latte 