When I was growing up (back in the stone ages), there were two main faces of Christmas; the Christ child and Santa Claus.
Although I grew up with both faces, both individuals as part of this season, I did not grow up confused by the pair who I grew up connecting to Christmas.
Santa was a good, and gentle man, and the stories of him fed my dreams of a magical character who existed to reward my good behavior.
The Christ child was an innocent baby, who was born to eventually die, so that I would never have to deal with the consequences of my human sin.
One gave,
the other took away.
One was jolly,
the other gave joy.
One lived in the North Pole,
and the other lived in my heart.
itsawonderfilledlife 
I have always like the poster of “Santa” kneeling beside the crib of Jesus. I raised my son to know both stories of Christmas, and why there is a celebration. They put ‘straw’ in the crib for the good deeds they did before Christmas, to show Santa they were ‘good boys’ and to prepare a soft place for Jesus to be born.