A Christmas stocking is an empty sock or sock-shaped bag that is hung on Christmas Eve so that Santa Claus (or Father Christmas) can fill it with small toys, candy, fruit, coins or other small gifts when he arrives.
 These small items are often referred to as stocking stuffers or stocking fillers.
 In some Christmas stories, the contents of the Christmas stocking are the only toys the child receives at Christmas from Santa Claus; in other stories (and in tradition), some presents are also wrapped up in wrapping paper and placed under the Christmas tree.
 Tradition in Western culture threatens that a child who behaves badly during the year will receive only a piece or pile of coal.
 However, coal is rarely if ever left in a stocking, as it is considered cruel.
 Some people even put their Christmas stocking by their bedposts so Santa Claus can fill it by the bed while they sleep.
Howard William Cosell ( ; born Howard William Cohen; March 25, 1918 – April 23, 1995) was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality.
 Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff.
 There's no question that I'm all of those things."
 In its obituary for Cosell, "The New York Times" described Cosell's effect on American sports coverage: "He entered sports broadcasting in the mid-1950s, when the predominant style was unabashed adulation, [and] offered a brassy counterpoint that was first ridiculed, then copied until it became the dominant note of sports broadcasting."
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 Christmas stop motion animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions.
 The film stars Fred Astaire as the narrator S.D. Kluger, Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus, Keenan Wynn as the Winter Warlock, and Paul Frees in various roles.
 The film tells the story of how Santa Claus and several Claus-related Christmas traditions came to be.
 It is based on the hit Christmas song "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town", which was introduced on radio by Eddie Cantor in 1934, and the story of Saint Nicholas.
I Still Believe in Santa Claus is a Christmas album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released by Curb Records in 1990.
 It was his fourth solo album of Christmas music, following "The Andy Williams Christmas Album" (1963), "Merry Christmas" (1965) and "Christmas Present" (1974).
 As with the 1965 LP, this album focuses exclusively on 20th-century compositions, including two new songs: "Christmas Needs Love to Be Christmas" and "My Christmas Vow (This Is My Promise)", the latter of which Williams describes in the liner notes as "a new lyric set to an old Hawaiian melody".
Jackson 5 Christmas Album was the fourth studio album (and only holiday album) by Motown family quintet The Jackson 5, released in October 1970.
 Included on the "Christmas Album" is the Jackson 5's hit single version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".
 The Jackson 5's versions of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" remain frequent radio requests during the Christmas season .
 The album spent all four weeks at the number one position on "Billboard" magazine's special Christmas Albums chart that the magazine published in December 1970, making it the best-selling Christmas album of that year.
 It has sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide.
Buckner & Garcia, was an American musical duo consisting of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia from Akron, Ohio.
 Their first recording was made in 1972, when they performed a novelty song called "Gotta Hear the Beat", which they recorded as Animal Jack.
 Later, in 1980, they wrote a novelty Christmas song titled "Merry Christmas in the NFL", imagining sports journalist Howard Cosell as Santa Claus.
 Performed under the pseudonym Willis the Guard & Vigorish, the song reached No. 82 on the Billboard charts despite limited airplay after Cosell found the song offensive.
 In 1981, the duo wrote a sentimental country theme to back the poem "Footprints in the Sand", performed by Edgel Groves.
 The duo also wrote the lyrics for extra verses of an extended version of the "WKRP in Cincinnati" theme song in 1982.
Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, or simply Santa (Santy in Hiberno-English), is a legendary figure of Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts to the homes of well-behaved ("good" or "nice") children on Christmas Eve (24 December) and the early morning hours of Christmas Day (25 December).
 The modern Santa Claus grew out of traditions surrounding the historical Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century Greek bishop and gift-giver of Myra, the British figure of Father Christmas and the Dutch figure of "Sinterklaas" (himself also based on Saint Nicholas).
 Some maintain Santa Claus also absorbed elements of the Germanic god Wodan, who was associated with the pagan midwinter event of Yule and led the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky.
Merry Christmas is the seventh studio album recorded by Motown girl group The Supremes, and released on Motown Records in November 1965 (see 1965 in music).
 The LP, produced by Harvey Fuqua, includes recordings of familiar Christmas songs such as "White Christmas", "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", "My Favorite Things", and "Joy to the World".
 Two originals, "Children's Christmas Song" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Me", were issued as the sides of a late 1965 Supremes holiday single.
We Need a Little Christmas is a Christmas album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released by Unison Music in 1995.
 It gives an adult contemporary treatment to songs that Williams had previously recorded for 1963's "The Andy Williams Christmas Album" ("Away In A Manger", "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)", "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year", "Silent Night"), 1965's "Merry Christmas" ("Mary's Little Boy Child"), 1974's "Christmas Present" ("Angels We Have Heard On High", "Hark!
 The Herald Angels Sing", "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", "What Child Is This"), and 1990's "I Still Believe in Santa Claus" ("I'll Be Home for Christmas") and includes three songs that Williams had not recorded before.
 In a brief note on the back of the jewel case Williams writes, "These all-new recordings feature fresh, innovative arrangements of some of my favorite carols.
 I felt like I was singing them for the very first time."
Motion pictures featuring Santa Claus abound and apparently constitute their own subgenre of the Christmas film genre.
 Early films of Santa revolve around similar simple plots of Santa's Christmas Eve visit to children.
 In 1897, in a short film called "Santa Claus Filling Stockings", Santa Claus is simply filling stockings from his pack of toys.
 Another film called "Santa Claus and the Children" was made in 1898.
 A year later, a film directed by George Albert Smith in titled "Santa Claus" (or "The Visit from Santa Claus" in the United Kingdom) was created.
 In this picture, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree.
 He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children.
 After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney.
 "Santa Claus' Visit" in 1900 featured a scene with two little children kneeling at the feet of their mother and saying their prayers.
 The mother tucks the children snugly in bed and leaves the room.
 Santa Claus suddenly appears on the roof, just outside the children's bedroom window, and proceeds to enter the chimney, taking with him his bag of presents and a little hand sled for one of the children.
 He goes down the chimney and suddenly appears in the children's room through the fireplace.
 He distributes the presents and mysteriously causes the appearance of a Christmas tree laden with gifts.
 The scene closes with the children waking up and running to the fireplace just too late to catch him by the legs.
 A 1909 film by D. W. Griffith titled "A Trap for Santa Claus" shows children setting a trap to capture Santa Claus as he descends the chimney, but instead capture their father who abandoned them and their mother but tries to burglarize the house after he discovers she inherited a fortune.
 A twenty-nine-minute 1925 silent film production titled "Santa Claus", by explorer/documentarian Frank E. Kleinschmidt, filmed partly in northern Alaska, feature Santa in his workshop, visiting his Eskimo neighbors, and tending his reindeer.
 A year later, another movie titled "Santa Claus" was produced with sound on De Forest Phonofilm.
 Over the years, various actors have donned the red suit (aside from those discussed below), including Monty Woolley in "Life Begins at Eight-thirty" (1942), Alberto Rabagliati in "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't" (1966), Dan Aykroyd in "Trading Places" (1983), Jan Rubes in "One Magic Christmas" (1985), David Huddleston in "" (1985), Jonathan Taylor Thomas in "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (1998), and Ed Asner in "Elf" (2003).
 Later films about Santa vary, but can be divided into the following themes.

Question: What is the name of the American sports journalist, widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality for whom the parody Christmas song 'Merry Christmas in the NFL' depicts him as Santa Claus?
Answer: Howard Cosell