Regardless of the who St. Nicholas really was, as there are several traditions based around him as there are with all of the Catholic instituted 'saints'. The fact here is that we must no be over indulgent in our lives. That implies selfishness, and it tells me that those early Christians weren't 'like the faithful Berean's who studied the scriptures daily to see if those things were true'. And I am sure there are many here in this forum who fit that category. The reason men try to justify our sins with the truth of God is because of how wicked our hearts are from birth. We hate to find out that we were wrong and that we must change not only what we are doing, but what we think about a certain topic. But the reality is that your mind cannot change without God's intervention into your life. And if he does this to you, calls you our of darkness, you are the elect. Those who were foreordained before the foundations of the earth.
No offense, but to defend Santa even to the slightest shows that you misunderstand something about the text. It's not about whether St. Nicholas became the Santa of today, its that we allow the giving and getting of presents eclipse the importance of which that day is supposed to commemorate. Instead of it being about Jesus coming into the world, we over indulge on all of the seasonal tid bits, from vanity and coveting, to adultery and idolatry... There is also strong implication that Santa is actually a modern version of the ancient god Molech. Tradition holds that Molech was usually a giant bronze statue that was heated to red hot and people would cast their children into the lap as an offering. They often believed that by 'giving' they would 'receive' an even greater blessing. I don't know how to feel about that completely, but it's still interesting to think about they symbolism.
The truth is that we must be on guard, 5 out of 7 people are going to be wrong in any given way of Christian life. That is terrible statistics. It's time we woke up and warned everyone