WASHINGTON – U.S. holiday retail sales this year were the weakest since 2008, when the nation was in a deep recession. In 2012, the shopping season was disrupted by bad weather and consumers' rising uncertainty about the economy.

A report that tracks spending on popular holiday goods, the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, said Tuesday that sales in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent, compared with last year. Many analysts had expected holiday sales to grow 3 to 4 percent.
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Shoppers were buffeted this year by a string of events that made them less likely to spend: Superstorm Sandy and other bad weather, the distraction of the presidential election and grief about the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut. The numbers also show how Washington's current budget impasse is trickling down to Main Street and unsettling consumers.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/26/us-...est-since-2008/

I don't know how they can say that cause' I did my part.

Quote: Olivia wrote in post #2

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I don't know how they can say that cause' I did my part.

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Quote: ThirstyMan wrote in post #3

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Quote: Olivia wrote in post #2

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I don't know how they can say that cause' I did my part.

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Good job Olivia!

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My twelve year old and I were talking about Hanukkah this year. I was explaining it to her. I was telling her that the game with the Dreidel was not Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights.

To illustrate it better I asked her if we could still have Christmas if we didn't have presents, a tree, a turkey, decorations, Christmas cards, or carols. If we removed all of the "stuff" of Christmas and focused on the gift of Christ's birth, would we still have Christmas?

Her eyes lit up and she said, "I finally understand "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". He didn't! Christmas isn't the stuff! It's the celebration of Jesus' birth."

Shoppers have cut back, year after year. People have downsized their Christmas celebrations out of economic necessity. But maybe they have strengthened their connection to the true meaning of Christmas in doing so.