Just one more chart week to go before Christmas… which means this is a dead week. Not the Christmas chart yet, so too early for the records that want a shot at number one. But swamped with Christmas back catalogue, so nobody else is releasing new music against it.

1. Ed Sheeran & Elton John – “Merry Christmas”

Two weeks. This is starting to grow on me slightly, but I’ll be interested to see if it can really keep charting in future years. It heads up a completely static top 7.

25. D-Block Europe featuring AJ Tracey – “Make You Smile”

This is… an anomaly. It’s not even a single, but a track from the Home Alone 2 mixtape, climbing from last week’s 42. It’s obviously positioned well to capitalise after the Christmas tracks vanish in two weeks time. “Overseas” is at still at number 12.

39. Michael Bublé – “Holly Jolly Christmas”

Climbing from last week’s number 41, this is another track from his Christmas album. This has only made the top 40 in three previous years; last year it got to number 24 but it doesn’t seem likely to repeat that this time round. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” is at number 10 this week.

40. José Feliciano – “Feliz Navidad”

This made the top 40 for the first time last year, when it managed… a week at number 40. Feliciano’s biggest hit in the UK was his 1968 cover of “Light My Fire”, which reached number 6.

This weeks climbers:

• “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee climbs 10-8, still below its peak of recent years.
• “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by Band Aid climbs 14-13.
• “Step Into Christmas” by Elton John climbs 16-14.
• “Come On Home for Christmas” by George Ezra – an actual new release – climbs 26-15. Maybe releasing Christmas singles has become the way to cut through at this time of year, like in days of old…?
• “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams climbs 20-18; its alltime peak was 17.
• “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard climbs 25-22.
• “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms climbs 32-26, which is a new all-time peak (beating, er, last year’s two weeks at 27). He had bigger hits than this in his late-50s prime, though.
• “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney climbs 29-27.
• “One More Sleep” by Leona Lewis climbs 31-28.
• “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade climbs 33-30.
• “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon & Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band climbs 35-34.
• “Sleigh Ride” by the Ronettes climbs 36-35 (its all-time peak is 33).
• “The Christmas Song” by Olivia Dean climbs 39-38 – another new release for this year.

The top ten non-Christmas related singles – likely to do well in the post-Christmas lull – are:

• 1: Adele – “Easy On Me”
• 2: Gayle – “ABCDEFU”. I can easily see this making number 1 after Christmas.
• 3: Sam Fender – “Seventeen Going Under”
• 4: Arrdee – “Flowers (Say My Name)”
• 5: D-Block Europe – “Overseas”
• 6: Switch OTR – “Coming For You”
• 7: Ed Sheeran – “Overpass Graffiti”
• 8: Acraze – “Do It To It”
• 9: Ed Sheeran – “Shivers”
• 10: D-Block Europe – “Make You Smile”

Over on the album chart, “30” by Adele is number 1 for a fourth week.

4. Paul Weller – “An Orchestrated Songbook”

Exactly what it sounds like, though with the BBC Symphony Orchestra rather than the usual suspects. Also, this is a live album from a one-off show back in May. Weller hasn’t missed the albums top 10 – even with a side project like this – since 2017, when the soundtrack to Jawbone missed the top 40 entirely. He’s placed another six albums, four of them studio originals, in the top 10 since then.

8. Juice WRLD – “Fighting Demons”

Another posthumous album, and while the last one got to number 1, making the top 10 for a collection of unreleased material is still pretty good. The single “Already Dead” reached number 25 in November.

16. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Barn”

So called because it was recorded in a barn. It’s one of his better received albums for a while. Neil Young & Crazy Horse albums are ridiculously consistent on the album chart – there have been five since 2012, all of which have peaked between 14 and 18.

And that’s it for this week. Next time, the inevitable parade of novelty records.