ya, I think Santa Claus was a knock off - it came from the Dutch/German Sinter Klaus day when Nicholas would go around and put presents in the poor people's wooden shoes ( generally gifts of food since they were starving).
I looked some up and one that sticks out is from Austria where naughty kids would get frightened or punished by Krampus...... like, the thing looks like it belongs in Halloween, not Christmas! It's freaky!