Silver Age Superman was written for children primarily and falls apart if scrutinized by modern adult sensibilities---as do all funnybook heroes.
It was falling apart for many readers of the period; DC did not discourage readers from continuing into their teen and young adult years (hence the maturation of stories referred to earlier). With that, a character stuck in that Super-Santa muck--one who was not well-integrated with the rest of the same universe in any convincing fashion-- was not going to keep the interest of a changing comic readership.