wow MAtthew, i totally know what you mean!! It's nuts!!
Dh and I just discussed whether we'd do santa or not... just for the sheer fact our children are so cute and we want to bless them!! So i do understand those who want to do santa..
but I asked dh when he did santa as a child if he ever thought of Jesus.. (nope), and what he remembered only was counting how many presents he got. Same here.. and we feel we need to stand our ground as Jesus gets erased and santa is exhaulted. Even though St. Nick was responding to the gospel when he gave gifts to the children (I think) he was pointing to the savior, not himself.
We want our girls to know that it's Jesus' birthday... and we will still give them a present or 2...but we will center those gifts around what JEsus has done for us on the cross.

To avoid the santa mania and in order to make them feel like they're not missing out on anything we are also going to start a few traditions and add on to those traditions every year to make things more exciting Because its still fun to bless our children!!