In this Christmas special Mushroom Wonderland takes a look at ancient folklore and modern day Christmas traditions, as well as mushrooms, Amanita muscaria to be exact, to see if the story of Christmas as we know it today was influenced by the mysterious and magical mushroom.
Undoubtedly the most iconic and famous mushroom around the globe, the red and white speckled Amanita, has made its way into modern culture in so many different ways. From fairy tales to video games, if you ask anyone to quickly draw a mushroom, this is the one they'll be most likely to draw. This mushroom holds certain effects if ingested and this was no mystery to reindeer herders in the far north reaches of Siberia and Finnish Lapland. It is said that the story of old Saint Nick, the flying reindeer, and many other parts of the Christmas tradition were influenced by, well, people under the influence of this mushroom. This information is just pieced together from a hundred different sources I have read and heard over the years and is solely my interpretation, so if you're offended or find that this doesn't make sense, I am not really interested in a debate, this is all in good fun and very little should be taken as a fact.
Amanita muscaria has several different "varieties" or sub-species around the globe and some people think that the North American version should be called Amanita chrysoblema and the muscaria version is purely the European variety. Either way, to simplify, I just call them all Amanita muscaria.
This is for ENTERTAINMENT purposes only and should not be used as any kind of identification key or guide. We are not promoting the use of this mushroom, it is reported as Toxic and I treat it as such.
This mushroom is not illegal, and it is said that is because the effects can be so unpleasant that few people will try them twice. Take that, as well as everything else in this video with a grain of salt.
Merry Christmas and Mush-Love to you all!
