While there are a lot of oral traditions about Christmastime, perhaps the most convincing is Santa Claus’ Arctic origins. Imagine our ol’ Saint Nick not just as a jolly fella, but as an Arctic shaman whose arrival you’d wait for all year. Some of our most cherished Christmas symbols may trace their origins back to this winter solstice ritual. These shamans revered the Amanita muscaria mushroom for its psychoactive properties and they’d distribute these mushrooms as gifts to the village, often having to slide through roof openings of snow-blocked dwellings, something that sounds an awful lot like how Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.