As expected, and correlative to the “recession” and credit contraction in the United States and internationally, U.S. retail sales before Christmas fell by approximately 4% year-to-year for 2008.

“It’s probably one of the most challenging holiday seasons we’ve ever had in modern times, we had a very difficult economic environment. Weather patterns were not favorable toward the end of season, and that resulted in one of the most challenging economic seasons we’ve seen in decades.” said Michael McNamara, VP of Analytics at the retail data company, MasterCard Advisors.

Food prices were included in the analysis, but gas and automobile purchases were not, and McNamara says that excluding food prices (including groceries, dining out, and specialty holiday foods) would have made the sales drop look significantly more serious, food, “provides a buffer” for dramatic changes in spending habits.

Online book and entertainment retailer, Amazon.com, however, benefited from the poor weather conditions and reduced availability of credit. Budgeting consumers, allegedly, find that Amazon offers much better prices with a few inconveniences; as the value of money goes up, the necessity to be frugal rises with it.

Amazon says Nintendo’s Wii was it’s biggest seller for the Christmas season, as well as Apple’s iPod Touch and a Samsung 52″ television. Amazon has not released sales figures.

Research firm ShopperTrak announced that traffic in malls had reduced nearly 20% year-to-year, citing storms and poor weather conditions in much of the United States as the explanation, as well.

ShopperTrak, reported a fall of 6.5% in the last week leading up to Christmas, but an increase of nearly 20% in the week before that, suggesting that consumers may be being more astute on their shopping habits.

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