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This is why the “theology” of Santa is contrary (and more importantly blasphemous I believe) to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Santa gives his gifts according to the behavior, works and deeds of the children - if they cry, pout etc.
Jesus Christ gives (new life and the gift of Salvation through His blood!) freely - freely to all who will receive His free gift INSPITE of the fact that they are good or bad (and they all are bad and sinners). His free gift is not at all based on how good or bad anyone has been - amen - praise God!
For good or bad they developed their own traditions, and most of those centered on the place of the shaman and the reindeer in their society.
Just about all the things Santa does have to do with images of real life in the North. The dwarves who build toys and tree decorations all year long to deliver them to customers on the shortest day of the year ~ that's all real stuff. The red and white suits ~ see Amanita Muscaria or "Little Red Man" in Sa'ami tradition. Reindeer with red noses? They got'em.
All of these images were developed in the North as part of a normal human urge toward definitization of society and normal moral behavior.
Although these people were among the least of peoples in Europe, their Christmas imagery seems to have overtaken and overpowered that of just about everybody else, or at least gotten an edge in. Their greater experience with Arctic weather probably has something to do with it ~ they certainly learned how to make long winter nights, and dreary skies, comforting signs.
What's not to like in that.
When the Sa'ami met the Norse they were all pagans. 500 years later the Norse were actually pursuing what amounted to a Protestant religious war in Northern Europe and the Sa'ami were still pagan.
What? You'd think Christianization would have proceeded with conversions in the Sapma as fast it did with all the other people living in Scandinavia ~ but it didn't!
Remember the sacraments. Now, what about the wine? Grapes don't grow in the Sapma. Plus, the Sa'ami do not, in general, share the genes that produce the enzymes that enable people to metabolize alcohol. This is a pretty serious thing because it means that whatever alcohol you consume will continue to circulate in your body until it turns into "other stuff" or simply leaks out. It's a deadly drug in the Northland.
And the bread? There's no wheat in the Sapma.
I suspect that given the high price of imported bread and wine Christianity hit a brick wall with the Sa'ami. It was not until the early 1700s, over 800 years since "contact" with the aliens that the Sa'ami were, for the most part, converted to Christianity.
Now that's "resistance"!
In the meantime they fed their own imagery to the outside world and the world ate it up. Bright, colorful, cheerful ~ and all in a snowbound setting at 50 below zero.
Christians should "lighten up" a bit ~ if these hardbitten people living at the edge of the frozen Arctic desert can create such social beauty then who are you to reject it so casually.
Your most precious sacrament didn't even fit in their world ~ but they figured out how to accommodate it.
Finally, these are the only people on Earth who appear to have never engaged in warfare before the 20th century, and then only because of Russian incursions and German occupation.
I'd suggest the folks who brought you Santa Claus and his reindeer may have got there before you. Jesus didn't need to visit them.