Tony R. Phipps/Getty Images, Laura Farr/ZUMA Press, Lester Cohen/Getty ImagesIn a blow to many a boy's imagination, Taylor Swift made Santa's nice list.
The country starlet, who first topped the charts over Thanksgiving, now rules the Christmas roost, holding off naughty-lister Britney Spears and would-be new holiday treats from Keyshia Cole, Jamie Foxx and Fall Out Boy.
Swift's Fearless held at No. 1 on sales of 330,000, per Nielsen SoundScan. Grammy-nominated R&B star Cole was just 8,000 behind with A Different Me, while Foxx's Intuition was at No. 3 (265,000), ahead of Spears' Circus (196,000).
New daddy Pete Wentz and his fellow Fall Out Boys scored the third and final top 10 bow as Folie à Deux checked in at No. 8 with 150,000. The band topped the charts last year with Infinity on High.
In other chart action...
Anthony Hamilton's The Point of It All opened at No. 12 (133,000), Plies' Da Realist entered at No. 14 (114,000), the All-American Rejects' When the World Comes Down checked in at No. 15 (112,000), and Soulja Boy's iSouljaboyTellem landed at No. 43 (46,000).
Across the pond, a bit of competition made for a historic finish on the U.K. chart. Alexandra Burke, winner of the 2008 X Factor (the American Idol equivalent that produced Leona Lewis), topped the singles chart with a Christmas cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." There was a much-publicized online campaign to push Jeff Buckley's 1994 version over Burke's and although it fell short at No. 2, the one-two finish marked the first time in nearly 52 years that the same song held the top slot on the British chart. Cohen's original even got in on the action, coming in at No. 36.
Back in Yankee land, overall sales were up by about 30 percent over the previous week but down that same amount compared to last year.
Here's a rundown of the top 10 albums for the week ended Sunday:
1. Fearless, Taylor Swift
2. A Different Me, Keyshia Cole
3. Intuition, Jamie Foxx
4. Circus, Britney Spears
5. I Am…Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé
6. Dark Horse, Nickelback
7. Twilight soundtrack, various
8. Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy
9. Black Ice, AC/DC
10. Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 29, various