Christmas retail sales spiked, but not enough to save December

Although the Christmas retail season this year was set up in the media to be a disappointing one, there is still some magic coming from consumers battered by the wacky economic environment in 2007.

As of Christmas Eve, a report from ShopperTrak indicated that sales from the last weekend before Christmas rose more than 18% from the year-ago period, although another report from MasterCard SpendingPulse indicated that a last-minute buying binge from desperate shoppers was not enough to make up for a weak holiday season.

Who ruled the roost -- and lost their shirt -- in retail this holiday season, then?

Target's (NYSE: TGT) didn't measure up, as the second-largest discount retailer in the U.S. said on Christmas Eve that December same-store sales were sitting below its recent guidance. December sales may have even went down 1% from a year earlier. Costco Wholesale's (NASDAQ: COST) CEO indicated that the second-largest wholesale club in the U.S. has "pretty good" holiday sales this year in what is a brilliantly cryptic quote.

When Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) sent shock waves into the retail sector three weeks before Thanksgiving with thousands of price cuts in every category, was the retail foreshadowing a week holiday shopping season? Although this week's discount plunge by retailers who needed to make up sales volume before the end of December is already in full swing. It's not entirely clear just how bad retail sales were this season. One hot item that increased over last year was the gift card -- from $18.5 billion in 2005 and $24.8 billion in 2006 to an estimated $26 billion this year. Even that increase, though, won't save retailers from the lowest consumer spending amount in five years.