Some arguments for a connection between Christmas and the hallucinogenic mushroom, Amanita muscaria. (Some content reproduced from "Drugs are NOT the Devil's Tools" by Dr. D. Bearman

1. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children in Siberia. He supplanted the indigenous Shamans who used the Amanita mushroom. Santa lives in the North Pole, akin to the environment of Siberia.
2. After reindeer eat fly agaric mushrooms, they jump and prance, giving an impression of flight.
3. Santa bring presents in his white sack and mushrooms are often gathered in bags.
4. The mushrooms are red and white, like Santa, and grow under a green tree.
5. The red and white mushrooms are dried by stringing them on the hearth of the fireplace, similar to how Christmas stockings are red and white hung from the hearth. The stockings often have wide brim folded-down top, with the rest looking like a stem or stalk.
6. People commonly use toys resembling Amanita muscaria as ornaments for the Christmas tree or other decorations or as candles.
7. The Virgin Birth is symbolic for the "seedless" germination of the mushroom.
8. Frescoes show Jesus being crucified on a mushroom.

How about Halloween witches that ride broomsticks? Midwives were known to use phallic-shaped objects to apply ointments and salves to the vagina. Some of these included hallucinogenic extracts which also acted as vaso-constrictors to stop bleeding. Hence, the flying while riding on a broomstick. In a 1470 reference: "But the vulgar believe, and the witches confess, that on certain days or nights they anoint a staff and ride on it to the appointed place or anoint themselves under the arms and in other hairy places."