, Santa Claus gives gifts on the 6th of December. On the Christmas Eve it is the Angel that brings presents, though. In Hungary, Santa Claus (Télapó or Mikulás) brings small gifts (usually candy and chocolate) during the night of the 6th of December and Little Jesus (Jézuska) brings the tree as well as the presents on Christmas Eve. Santa is often dressed up in red.

By the end of the century, the reality of mass mechanized production became more fully accepted by the Western public. That shift was reflected in the modern depiction of Santa's residence—now often humorously portrayed as a fully mechanized production and distribution facility, equipped with the latest manufacturing technology, and overseen by the elves with Santa and Mrs. Claus as executives and/or managers.[6] An excerpt from a 2004 article, from a supply chain managers' trade magazine, aptly illustrates this edited depiction:

Santa’s main distribution center is a sight to behold. At 4 million square feet, it’s one of the world’s largest facilities. A real-time warehouse management system is of course required to run such a complex. The facility makes extensive use of task interleaving, literally combining dozens of DC activities (putaway, replenishing, order picking, sleigh loading, cycle counting) in a dynamic queue...the DC elves have been on engineered standards and incentives for three years, leading to a 12% gain in productivity...The WMS and transportation system are fully integrated, allowing (the elves) to make optimal decisions that balance transportation and order picking and other DC costs. Unbeknownst to many, Santa actually has to use many sleighs and fake Santa drivers to get the job done Christmas Eve, and the TMS optimally builds thousands of consolidated sacks that maximize cube utilization and minimize total air miles.[7]

Many television commercials, comic strip and other media depict this as a sort of humorous business, with Santa's elves acting as a sometimes mischievously disgruntled workforce, cracking jokes and pulling pranks on their boss. For instance, an early Bloom County story has Santa telling the story of how his elves went on strike, only to be fired by Ronald Reagan and replaced by unemployed Aircraft control personnel.