So it’s the holidays. “Ho, ho, ho.” And I’m thinking about mushrooms. Psychedelic mushrooms. The Amanita muscaria, to be exact. Most commonly associated with fairies, gnomes, Alice in Wonderland, and Mario. So what does this magical mushroom have to do with Christmas? “It’s surprising that it’s taken so long for the popular imagination to encompass who Santa Claus is.” That’s Carl Ruck, a scholar known for his work on the influential role hallucinogenic plants have played in mythology and religion. And he believes this mushroom may be one of the reasons we have flying reindeer and an all-knowing man who flies around the globe every winter. Maybe there’s another story worth telling this season, one about a psychedelic mushroom-eating shaman from the Arctic. “At least part of the Santa Claus image comes from Lapland.” And that’s Lawrence Millman, writer and mycologist. He says the indigenous people of Lapland, known as the Sami, allegedly performed healing rituals led by shamans who used the hallucinogenic mushroom, the Amanita muscaria. So imagine it’s winter, we’re near the North Pole, and a shaman is coming to your house. “Long ago the Sami people believed that the shaman who ate an Amanita muscaria ended up looking like an Amanita muscaria.” And he came on a reindeer-drawn sled. So he had reindeer and he’s looking like a — “A big fat person with red splotches in the dead of winter.” And instead of entering through the snow-blocked doorway, the shaman would drop down the chimney. “What they brought were not physical gifts, but usually healing and problem solving, which would be a kind of gift. And they were rewarded with lots of food.” Offerings of food, kind of like milk and cookies? Mmm. Delicious. “And reindeer have a great love for mushrooms. And especially the males like Amanita muscaria. And one of the effects — I don’t know if you’ve had Amanita muscaria, have you?” No, I haven’t. “Not that I’m recommending it, mind you. One of the effects makes you feel like you’re flying. And one can imagine that that’s how reindeer feel as well.” So if we’re imagining ourselves in a tent right now, there’s a fire going. The shaman is in front of us, and the shaman — “Would eat the mushroom, go into a trance … Although they would be sitting there beating the drum in the tent, they would be saying, ‘and I’m going down to the underworld and I’m getting advice from so-and-so.’” So they would get advice from another realm and bring it back to the people. And — “That would be the gift, as it were, of Santa Claus, i.e., the person who took the mushroom and ended up looking like the mushroom. This all becomes a kind of melange. You can’t really interpret it with scientific objectiveness.” I should mention the Amanita muscaria is a highly toxic mushroom. But the urine from reindeer, or someone who has consumed it, is still highly psychoactive, but without all the toxins. In Siberia, people actually used to drink their shaman’s urine to get the effects of the mushroom. “The shaman would eat the muscaria. Then he’d urinate. And then his followers would get the urine and drink it. And then they would urinate, and their reindeer would follow them around, wanting to drink their urine.” So I’m not suggesting we start drinking Santa’s urine. But what we’ve got here is a shaman from Lapland, which is near the North Pole, who rides a reindeer-drawn sled, enters people’s houses through their chimney, eats red and white mushrooms, goes on a trip, and brings back gifts. And the reindeer love this same mushroom, which gives the sensation of flying. Maybe it’s time we recognize that our all-knowing Santa, who travels the globe defying space and time, is actually a shaman. Lawrence, how much do you love Christmas? “I hate Christmas.” Well, what if we embraced this more shamanistic side of Santa? What would that look like? “What I would take away from it — the shaman comes as a healer or to give advice. We should think in terms of regarding Christmas not as a capitalistic holiday, but a time when one should think more spiritually about life, about one’s ills, be they psychological or physical.” And you, Carl? “I think if you don’t know the richness of our folkloric tradition, you are missing a large part of the opportunity you have to know know who we are as a culture. And we should know what’s going on with Santa Claus. It makes it more fun.” Maybe this Christmas we can make room for one more story. One about mushrooms, shamans and ancient rituals? Maybe we should be asking Santa for something different this year, something more in the tradition of his shaman forefathers, like time for reflection and looking inward. “This is the Amanita muscaria. Like the nose on Rudolph.”