Santa does not give items, in fact no race does. Therefore it is not possible for a race to cause this glitch.

The item should have been removed on death. There appears to be an issue with the buff or item system where as some events are not being set off for some reason.

---------- Post added at 11:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:10 PM ----------

For example here is my method for respawn:
Code:
/*
 * RESPAWN CLIENT
 * 
 * @param client        Player to respawn.
 * @return                True on success, false otherwise.
 */
stock bool:RespawnClient(client)
{
    if(Client_IsValid(client, true))
    {
        if(!IsPlayerAlive(client)&&GetClientTeam(client)>1)
        {
            War3_SpawnPlayer(client);
            
            PrintHintText(client,"Respwaned");
            
            //Ensure weapons stripped
            KnifeOnly(client);
            
            // give them their weapons
            for(new s=0;s<10;s++)
            {
                new String:wep_check[64];
                War3_CachedDeadWeaponName(client,s,wep_check,64);
                if(!StrEqual(wep_check,"",false) && !StrEqual(wep_check,"weapon_c4") && !StrEqual(wep_check,"weapon_knife"))
                {
                    GivePlayerItem(client,wep_check);
                }
            }
            
            //give full armor
            SetEntProp(client,Prop_Send,"m_ArmorValue",100);
            
            //RESPAWN SUSCESS
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
    return false;
}