Are gift cards going to be popular this retail holiday season? You bet -- and assume people are very hard to shop for, the "holiday gift card" will continue to be popular until the end of December this year. In fact, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is reportedly adding checkout lines in stores to be used exclusively by gift card redeemers.

Wal-Mart Marketing head John Fleming, formerly of Target Corp., said "we expect more use of gift cards, and it's a key part of our marketing message".

The push for more usage of gift cards is getting to be part of the largest fever pitch I've seen in recent years -- if ever. With the retail sales tracking universe always settled/not settled on including the sales of gift cards in holiday sales, whether they are ever redeemed or not, sales are expected to be better than ever this season.

In fact, gift card sales are expected to grow more than six times faster than total holiday sales to a record $24.8 billion this holiday season, the National Retail Federation says. Now that's growth. And retailers just love it when the holiday shopping season extends well into January -- or further.