Preliminary sales results for the 2009 holiday season are in, and the news is better than expected. Retail sales for November and December were up 1.2% over 2008, exceeding most forecasts. These results lend hope that momentum is gradually building as we exit an otherwise bleak year in which GAFO sales fell 2.6% overall. With the 2009 holiday season over, we turn our attention to the new year. We close our final newsletter of the season with a discussion of key retail strategies in 2010.