Unlike Bigfoot, the gargantuan hirsute benevolent one has had more sightings than all UFO and Virgin Mary sightings combined. The witnesses to the jolly one decked out in sartorial crimson flailing away at his flying reindeer are legion. Who can mistrust a child? How about billions of children? Surely these witnesses are reliable. There is no proof that they are suffering from any mental derangement. They have no motive for lying. The only plausible explanation for these sightings is that they are genuine. There is no reason to think that all these witnesses are confabulating. If there is nothing to this belief, then why do so many people believe it? There is no way this could be an example of communal reinforcement of a false idea or delusion. This is the real thing. Trust me.
Never mind that the belief in the winter giftgiver requires acceptance of the hypothesis that in a single evening the infrequent flyer visits all the homes in America and the homes of Americans everywhere else on earth. Even if the speedy one spent a single second at each home and took no time to travel between homes, it would take him several years to complete his rounds. Obviously, a miracle happens every Christmas! That is the only logical explanation. What else could it be?
further reading
Carl Sagan, "UFO's: The Extraterrestrial and Other Hypotheses," in UFO's: A Scientific Debate, ed. Carl Sagan and Thornton Page (New York: Cornell University Press, 1972), p. 266.