These aren’t really two competing theories about Santa’s origins, because almost nobody has heard of the one about psychedelic mushrooms and reindeer urine. I’ll put this down as satire, but it’s become more common that something outlandish is being taken seriously. Next, we’ll hear that Santa’s at the North Pole giving birth to elves.
Ho, ho, ho!
These aren’t really two competing theories about Santa’s origins, because almost nobody has heard of the one about psychedelic mushrooms and reindeer urine. I’ll put this down as satire, but it’s become more common that something outlandish is being taken seriously. Next, we’ll hear that Santa’s at the North Pole giving birth to elves.
If you're talking about the specifically *American* version of Saint Nicolas, it seems a heck of a lot more likely that the WASPs who defined American culture in the 1800s probably borrowed the traditions of northern European immigrants to the US than latched onto stories about Finnish medicine men. Most of these Just So stories about 'pagan' origins do the same kind of hopscotch between moden secular bastardization of Christian practice and what can actually be tracked through history.
These aren’t really two competing theories about Santa’s origins, because almost nobody has heard of the one about psychedelic mushrooms and reindeer urine. I’ll put this down as satire, but it’s become more common that something outlandish is being taken seriously. Next, we’ll hear that Santa’s at the North Pole giving birth to elves.
Ho, ho, ho!
If you're talking about the specifically *American* version of Saint Nicolas, it seems a heck of a lot more likely that the WASPs who defined American culture in the 1800s probably borrowed the traditions of northern European immigrants to the US than latched onto stories about Finnish medicine men. Most of these Just So stories about 'pagan' origins do the same kind of hopscotch between moden secular bastardization of Christian practice and what can actually be tracked through history.
Or that Santa now identifies as a reindeer 🤯.