Equally plausible scenarios:
1) The 12 year old stashed a Santa hat way the hell up in this tree.
2) Same child strapped the Santa hat onto one of the cats, who finally escaped my daughter’s enthusiastic clutches following which the Santa hat hit a snag in the bark and so remained there.
Also, it is June.
3) Santa was out on a test run that did not end well in the tree in our back yard. I’m too scared to look up…