He comes as judge. The reward for approved behavior is an increase in material goods. They'd laugh, but they'd get it. I'd conclude by saying that the most important point was that they knew the myth without knowing they knew it. They had absorbed its lessons without being aware that there was even a lesson there.
Myth works that way.
Well, that was just dandy when I was a single, smart-ass college professor who had not yet swum in the raging sea of reality that is parenthood. Myth does work that way, yes indeed, but now that it's in my house, I'm ready to show it the door. I don't like any of those lessons. I don't want to reinforce the notion that children have to please a remote male authority to get what they've been told they want. In fairness, Santa has been given too heavy a burden.