A spending surge during the week before Christmas significantly boosted the sales of the nine already released albums that will occupy Top 10 spots on the forthcoming Billboard 200 album chart, including Creed [ tickets ]'s "Weathered," which will spend its fifth consecutive week at the top of the chart. Those nine albums are joined by the Top 10 debut of the latest release from rapper Nas.

A sales increase of about 300,000 copies brings this week's sales figure for "Weathered" (Wind-Up) to about 865,000 copies, according to industry sources; that figure is just shy of its roughly 887,000-copy debut week. More than 3 million copies of the album have sold to date.

The "Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 8" (Universal) compilation stays put at No. 2 after selling about 540,000 copies during its most recent week out, a bump of about 135,000 copies over the previous week.

Trading places on the chart this week are Garth Brooks' "Scarecrow" (Capitol)--which moves up one notch to No. 3 after selling about 442,000 copies--and Britney Spears' "Britney" (Jive)--which drops a spot to No. 4 with sales of about 423,000 copies.

Enya's "A Day Without Rain" (Reprise) gets pushed up from No. 8 last week to No. 5, thanks to sales of about 394,000 copies. The album stays ahead of this week's No. 6 entry, Nickelback's "Silver Side Up" (Roadrunner), by less than one hundred copies, according to industry sources.

Now in its 61st week on the chart, nu-metal group Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory" (Warner Bros.) jumps from No. 10 to No. 7. The album's latest single, "In the End," claims the No. 1 spot on trade publication Radio & Records' latest Active Rock airplay chart.

Debuting in the No. 8 spot is Nas' "Stillmatic" (Ill Will/Columbia), which moved about 340,000 copies during its first week in stores. The album features the rapper's hit single "Got Ur Self A …," which is built around an abundant sampling of A3's "Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix)," the theme song from HBO's "The Sopranos."

Returning to the Top 10, meanwhile, are Usher's "8701" (Arista) and Pink's "Missundaztood" (Arista), which climb from Nos. 11 and 12 last week to Nos. 9 and 10 this week, respectively.

Falling just short of a Top 10 debut is Lil' Bow Wow's "Doggy Bag" (Columbia) at No. 11.

Other debuts further down the chart include: Wu-Tang Clan's "Iron Flag" (Loud) at No. 32, Mystikal's "Tarantula" (Jive) at No. 33, Jay-Z's "MTV Unplugged" (Def Jam) at No. 34 and Ruff Ryders' "Ryde or Die, Vol. 3" (Interscope) at No. 38.