We'll start by looking at the Advance Monthly Retail Sales Report for December from the Census Bureau, which estimated that our total seasonally adjusted retail and food services sales were at $431.9 billion, which was 0.2 percent (±0.5%)* higher than November sales. Before the seasonal adjustment, December's sales were estimated at $488.7 billion, up 13.2% from November's $431.8 billion, about the increase we would expect for December.