Well, I think there&#x27;s a pretty solid argument for Santa being a stand-in Jesus, at least in our current conception of him. You&#x27;re punished for evil and rewarded for nice and he&#x27;s watching you all the time?<p>My understanding from listening to some guy on the radio, almost certainly on NPR, is that&#x27;s a fairly modern conception. It&#x27;s like they couldn&#x27;t put the Christ back into Christmas, so they shoehorned St. Nick into Christ instead.