Year on year the retailers dig out the violins to cry about how tough Christmas is, and how consumers are not spending on the high street. Yet here we are in January hearing about how surprisingly well Christmas went for many of our high street giants.

I’m not suggesting consumer spending is not dropping, and with the credit-crunch consumers are not a little more thrifty, but its becoming a bit old hat, when we hear the same thing each year, then in January they say, ‘maybe it wasn’t so bad after all’!

The PR stunt of making consumers think they should be out spending seems to be working a treat.

John Lewis has been quoted as enjoying a bumper Christmas with the group reporting an 8% jump in department store sales in the week up to December 29. Electricals showed the strongest growth, with televisions (flat-screen TV sales were up 50%), MP3 players, digital photograph frames and digital cameras flying off the shelves.

Majestic Wine were Christmas winners through sales of champagne. Game, Argos, Carphone Warehouse and House of Fraser also reported strong sales. House of Fraser chairman, Don McCarthy, said ‘We have seen both like-for-like sales growth and improvement in our margins, despite the general tough retail trading environment’.

They regularly complain of poor high street sales but they often gloss over the fact their online trading has gone through the roof! According to retail analyst Experian, in the week before Christmas the number of shoppers was down by 8% on 2006. However, this figure is no doubt offset by the increase in their online sales. The Guardian Online have said that ‘overall, 2007 has been a much more successful year for online shopping at Christmas, October and November together saw a 24% increase [from the same period 2006].