Please use this thread going forward: [S] Father winter won't leave | EA Forums - 12238733
Yeah, this happened to me, too. I DO have a fireplace, and he did the rotate upwards leaving animation and the sound played, but then computers fired off video games when no one was there, and the game pad played games by itself, and all my Sims were "chatting with [father winter]" when he wasn't there, and the game refused to go to speed 4 when everyone was asleep, so I went into manage worlds and it turned out he'd been living in their home, invisible, for 36 hours. (He became visible on lot reload.) Creeeeeeeeeepy. There was no option to send him home or ask him to leave.
I used the middle-school solution and invited him to the park, then turned around and left him there during a blizzard and locked all the doors. No offense, Santa, but you can't live with us. GO HOME.
