Here's a fun historical tidbit about the origin of Santa that recently blew my fucking mind. Ever wonder why some people use mushrooms to decorate for the holidays? In ooold nordic countries, mystical wise men would come from the deep forests to share 'clarity' and spiritual gifts with the townsfolk. They'd do this using a concentrate of Red Fly mushrooms. The concentrate was made by feeding the hallucigenic mushrooms to reindeer and diluting it through their urine. This is the origin of the 'flying' reindeer.

The wise men would wear clothes depicting the mushrooms, - red clothes and a pointy hat with white rims. Sound familiar?

Not only that, but this is also how the 'Christmas tree' was born. The townsfolk would gather mushrooms and hang them on naked pine trees indoors to dry, in anticipation for the arrival of the wise men.

The main entrances of houses would often get blocked by snow, resulting in people using a roof entrance. Meaning, when these men wearing red clothes and pointy hats would arrive with their gifts, they'd enter trough the roof. Santa and elves bearing gifts, chimney, flying reindeer.. it's all connected to mushrooms.