I am Christian, and I was always told that Santa Claus was another name for St. Nicholas. Kathleen, I found this website for you, if you want to look at it. It's called
Saint Nicholas: Discovering The Truth About Santa Claus. This website does a very good job explaining the connections between St. Nicholas and Santa Claus.
This is the link to the actual website:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=23
This is the link about who St. Nicholas was:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38
And, this is the link about how St. Nicholas became Santa Claus:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=35
Kathleen, I hope that you will find that Santa Claus does have a Christian side (a very Christian side). I learned from this site that through history, St. Nick's story and image had evolved into the jolly, red man we know and love today. And, I have realized that the Christian aspect of Santa's being has been overlooked and/or slightly forgotten.
I hope this website helps! It's actually quite interesting!