This bonus/end of the year holiday episode is a looser and more fun episode all about the psychedelic mushroom history of Santa Claus. According to this theory, our modern Santa is based on ancient shamans in the Scandinavian and Siberian regions who would pass out hallucinogenic mushrooms on the winter solstice.

While it is just a theory, it does explain many of the weird traditions around Christmas—the red and white outfit, putting presents under a conifer tree, entering through the chimney, etc. It especially explains why humans might have believed that the reindeer pulling these old bearded shamans around the forest were flying. Maybe the reindeer themselves even thought that they were flying since they love to eat the Amanita muscaria mushroom.

Whatever the real history, this version is fun to think about and served as our excuse to have a few beers and make a fun bonus episode. And we invited our good friend and homebrewing expert Johnny back on—he was on previously to talk about the craft of craft beer—since he has an impressive knowledge of weird history on topics like this.

And since he's a beer guy, we also talked about the role beer played in the old pagan solstice celebrations (aka yule feasts) in Scandinavia and other parts of Russia.

Enjoy, and thanks for being a part of Exploring Kodawari in 2020. We'll be back with new episodes in 2021!

Links:

• The Magic Mushroom Christmas Theory
• Santa Is a Psychedelic Mushroom
• 8 Ways Magic Mushrooms Explain Santa Story
• The True Meaning of Christmas (beer history)

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