DALLAS, Jan 6, 2006/ --- Jolly ole St. Nick was generous to Federated Department Stores and J.C. Penney, but other retailers did not fare as well.

Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores, which runs Macy's and Bloomingdale's among others posted total sales of $5.708 billion, a 99.9% increase from last year’s $2.856 billion. Comparable store sales increased 2.4%

Commenting on Federated’s stellar financial performance, Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO said in a statement, "We are pleased with Macy's and Bloomingdale's strong performance in December, despite disruptions caused by the New York City transit strike the week before Christmas. In particular, key components of our apparel and accessories businesses performed very well as customers responded to our assortments of ‘affordable luxury’ goods.”

Dallas-based J.C. Penny hit Wall Street target posting sales $3.256 billion sales for December, a 3.1% increase from $3.157 billion during the same period last year. Comparable store sales increase 2.7%

But others did not do as well. The promising start on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving fizzled out during December as consumers waited for deeper discounts to do their shopping.

Hence, the sales figures had been good, but profit margins were cut, resulting to lower than expected net income.

Birmingham, AL based Saks Inc. reported a comparable sales increase of 2.4% compared to last year, but a net 15% decrease in total sales to $898.4 million, down from $1.056 billion during the same period last year.

San Francisco-based Gap Inc., which has 3126 store locations nationwide, did not fare much better; posting $2.4 billion sales, down 5% from $2.6 billion last year with a 9% decrease in comparable store sales.