Secular? Of course not!
Actually Santa is really Saint Nicholas of Myra. As real and as holy as anyone can get. Nicholas is one of the holiest of saints in the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith.
We love him!
But that is not how he is portrayed. The whole reindeer, sleigh and elves poison children.
If the coming of Christ to fulfill all the profecies that culiminates in His substitutionary atonement on the cross is left out of the Christian message, it means nothing.
Words mean stuff.