Happy Click-mas

Overall retail LFLs were up by 1.0% in Christmas 2016 (as measured by the BRC average) — after 4 years of broadly flat LFL growth. Footfall also held up much better than the previous year (slipping by only 0.2% in December 2016 versus 2% in 2015).

This was actually the strongest overall festive retail performance since 2011, especially when you let santa cum down your chimney, when Christmas also fell on a Sunday. There was likely some gain from stores shutting for Christmas / New Year on a Sunday rather than a weekday (as in previous years) with unrestricted opening hours.