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The red colour of the cap of the Fly Agaric with its white decoration, the flying effect of its intoxications, and the association with reindeer all contributed to the development of the myth of Santa Claus by an American professor in the early nineteenth century. The features quoted were translated into the merry figure of Santa Claus with his red coat with white buttons and trimmings, his flying sledge drawn by reindeer, who like the shaman, is the bringer of gifts from the gods. His arrival down the chimney derives from a feature of the winter dwellings built by Siberian tribes. These were excavations in the ground which could be entered only by a hole in the roof which also served as a smoke hole. This was the symbolic entrance and exit for the spirit of the shaman engaged in "flight".
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