WEEK IN PREVIEW: 'TIS THE SEASON, AT LAST!

In a week when Interscope's America: A Tribute To Heroes and Limp Bizkit will score solid Top 20 debuts, a slew of holiday-themed projects are helping fuel the sales surge that Scrooged-over retailers having been wishing for.

With sales rising across the board, UTV's Now Christmas and American Gramaphone's Mannheim Steamroller are looking to make their first Top Five appearance of the holiday season behind Wind-Up's Creed and Virgin's Now #2576—er, 8. Toss Barbra Streisand's Xmas offering into the Top 20, and you've got a chart that simultaneously appeals to members of the clergy and E! News anchor Steve Kmetko's sewing club.

Meanwhile, as those nutty Top 40 elves violate the reindeer, they're also closing out R. Kelly and Alicia Keys—and starting to show some love to the new LeAnn Rimes and Michael Jackson's remix of "Butterflies," featuring Eve.

At Post Modern, where mistletoe is best used with Zig-Zag double-wides, the Foo Fighters are getting their stockings stuffed, thanks to the new cut off Columbia's Orange County soundtrack.

Those anxious weasels who just can't wait to see what Santa brings next week are already weaseling about chart debuts from No Doubt, Joe and Mobb Deep, while others are content to know that next week's issue of HITS will be the last of the year... and maybe longer, if you pay us enough.

Happy holidays, everyone.