So, who do you believe? Santa Claus or the US government? While pundits predicted that holiday sales would rise more than 4% last year and retailers insisted that they posted gains during Holiday 2011, today the Fed released data that sales at USretailers increased 0.1% in December. The Commerce Department said sales rose to a seasonally adjusted $400.6 billion, an advance of 6.5% from the prior year. Holiday sales — defined as November and December retail sales excluding autos, gasoline, ...