Why people get confused

The reason people get confused by this special is the fact you could actually form a kind of continuity from the previous Bass/Rankin specials: "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town", then "Year Without a Santa Claus", followed by "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", and finally "Rudolph's Shiny New Year."
This special broke with this defacto continuity and worse reused the mailman character from "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" which was still being rebroadcast every Christmas resulting in an inevable effort to try and link the two shows together.

We are told that King Winterbolt is 'evil' and yet compared to the pre-redemption Winter Warlock of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" he sure does not look it. Also in terms of behavior King Winterbolt doesn't measure up to the Winter Warlock before Santa softened his heart. In fact if anything King Winterbolt comes off more a victim than a villian; totally without morals he depends on the Genie of the Ice Sceptor to give him advice. And it is the following of this advice that Winterbolt commits his 'evil' making him totally undeserving of the fate that befalls him at the end of the show.

In comparing Winterbolt to the Winter Warlock another problem comes up. While largely depowered there is nothing to say Winter Warlock is not still around so where it he? Is there some sort of connection between the two? Also why did Lady Boreal take such extreme measures against Winterbolt but leave Winter Warlock alone? Then there is the issue of how closely tied to the Ice Scepter and its Genie Winterbolt - why didn't Lady Boreal just break the blasted thing and save everyone a lot of trouble later on?