During that time, Halloween has grown to become one of the most popular holidays of the year, average spending on back-to-school items has increased 31 percent since 2004, and Thanksgiving Day has officially become a bonafide shopping day for millions of bargain-hungry Americans. I am frequently asked how holidays “rank” when it comes to consumer spending so I thought I would dig into it a little bit more and add some context to who, what, when, where, why and how people shop for our consumer holidays. Here’s how each holiday ranks as of the release of our Mother’s Day survey:

Holiday Spending Totals In Billions, 2013-2014

Information Seasons with the * indicates the data is from the 2013 Monthly Consumer Survey

Charts from the NRF Foundation’s Retail Insight Center. To access this data and more research please visit the Retail Insight Center.

Winter holidays: As the largest gift-giving holiday of them all, the winter holidays account for nearly 20 percent of total annual retail sales for retailers. In 2013, holiday celebrants spent an average of $730 on gifts, food, decorations and more. After all was said and done, NRF found that holiday sales increased 3.8 percent to $602 billion. More than 90 percent of Americans celebrated Christmas, Kwanza or Hanukah last winter, the most-celebrated season of the year.

Back to school/college: Spending on pencils, backpacks, denim, college dorm furniture and collegiate wear, tablets, smartphones and notebooks costs mom and dad hundreds of dollars on average and a total of $72.5 billion last year. But savvy parents know bargains are not hard to find. Almost every sector of retail plays a role: drug stores, thrift stores, electronics stores, department stores, discount stores and even grocery stores for penny-pinching college students and their parents.

Mother’s Day: Consumers say they will spend an average $163 this year – $19.9 billion total – with the majority of their budget going to special outings, new apparel items and jewelry. As to why Mother’s Day is so much bigger than Father’s Day: the types of gifts people typically buy mom tend to cost a little more, and dad even admits that he doesn’t like all the fuss anyway.

Halloween: In 2013, two-thirds of Americans said they would partake in Halloween activities, spending $75 on average to celebrate for a total of $6.9 billion. In addition to the pint-sized “Despicable Me” costumes that now roam the streets on Halloween, the holiday has become more of an adult event than ever before, helping boost spending on costumes, candy, decorations and party materials more than 55 percent since 2005. With the growth in popularity, other sectors have jumped into the mix. Home improvement stores take advantage of their vast space to sell life-size yard decorations, and drug and grocery stores are also now devoting select aisles to decorations candy and costumes.

Visit the Retail Insight Center for a breakdown of other consumer holidays like Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and more, and sign up to receive “Consumer Trends” press releases on NRF.com.

When it comes to the impact weather has on businesses, most industries, including retail, manufacturing, construction and auto, recognize the ebb and flow of weather as a significant part of their plans. For retailers, weather forecasting models can impact everything from merchandising decisions to shipping and receiving, and even sales and staffing.

Looking back on the past few months, it’s evident the 2013-14 winter season has been a serious thorn in the side for the nation’s largest industries. In the Federal Reserve’s recently-released “Beige Book,” a summary of commentary on current economic conditions, “weather” was mentioned 119 separate times to describe November and December alone.

Just how severe was this winter?

• Ohio had used almost a million tons of salt for its roadways as of late February, compared with 630,000 tons used on average each winter
• Erie, Pa., became America’s snowiest city with a population over 100,000, recording a whopping 123.9 inches of snow
• According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, December and January averaged over the contiguous 48 states were the third-coldest months in the last 30 years
• As of January 31, there were 1,073 different snowfall records set across the country at various times
• The meteorological winter, beginning December 1 and ending March 1, marked Chicago’s coldest winter in 30 years.

As for the latest results from retail, industry sales in January fell 0.4 percent from December 2013, according to the Department of Commerce, led by a drop in auto sales and in categories like clothing, furniture stores and restaurants, sectors largely depending on foot traffic. Seasonal hiring in February showed retailers took a more cautious approach to staffing their stores during the brutally cold month.

But for some retailers it hasn’t all been bad news:

• Ace Hardware has reported it is having its best winter in more than a decade thanks to increased sales of snowblowers and shovels;
• Maine-based retailer L.L.Bean has sold out of its famous waterproof boots
• Sales for company Delivery.com are up 30 percent compared with last year as more people looked for ways to get their laundry, dry-cleaning and grocery shopping done without leaving home
• Carmex, maker of their namesake cult-favorite lip balm, says its sales are up 9 percent over the past eight to 10 weeks
• Pawz Dog Boots, which makes fun, colorful booties for dogs that protect them from salt and snow, says sales have more than doubled.

Looking ahead, it’s too soon to say if NRF’s outlook for 2014 needs to be adjusted based on recent sales reports; the impact from the severe weather could have just been a blip on the radar, so to speak. When the ground finally thaws and consumers can start enjoying spring-like weather, we will re-evaluate consumer spending. Until then, we can only hope that winter is done having its fun with us.

Although spending on the green holiday is small in comparison with other consumer holidays, it’s still a social event in communities across the country and an important day for the retail industry. Consumers will celebrate their Irish roots or Irish-American culture in a variety of festive ways. The average person will spend $35, increasing traffic for grocery stores, restaurants and stores selling green apparel.

There’s no question it’s a popular holiday for millennials – 77 percent of 18-24 year-olds plan to celebrate and 90 percent of them will wear something green. Those in their 20s and 30s will flock to restaurants and bars with their friends, looking for the best deals on green beverages while dressing in creative green outfits, Irish costumes and festive accessories. Asked how they will celebrate, 45 percent of 25-34 year olds will attend a party at a bar or restaurant; others will attend a private event.

But Americans of all ages will look to celebrate in a variety of ways; eight in 10 of those celebrating this year said they will wear green and another one in five will decorate their home or office with St. Patrick’s Day decor.

You can dig deeper into the data in the Retail Insight Center. But as the Irish say, “there are only two kinds of people in the world. The Irish and those who wish they were.” How do you plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year?

View St. Patrick’s Day data in the Retail Insight Center

In fact, one retailer’s unusually early holiday-themed commercial in September  secured their place as one of the more memorable ads in recent history. According to thousands of consumers polled recently, they have been driving the conversation ever since.

When asked which retailer had the best holiday TV commercial, 12 percent of holiday shoppers said Kmart, up significantly from the nearly 2 percent in 2012. The survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, found that Walmart (22 percent) and Target (14 percent) were the clear winners in the eyes of consumers, but the survey makes it evident that Kmart’s edgy take on “Jingle Bells” and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” really caught people’s attention this year. Watch both TV spots below.

As for the retailers waiting to receive those returns and exchanges, you can bet they are ready to go the extra mile in the few weeks after Christmas to make sure their customers have a pleasant experience. The week after Christmas can account for as much as 15 percent of the sales for retailers during the holiday season. While millions of people head to the stores this week to do a little “self-gifting,” many more will return the sweaters or pajamas – given with good intentions – that just don’t fit their style.

Returns are an integral part of retailers’ operations. Some companies like Zappos even tout free return shipping for their online customers. These types of services go a long way to satisfy busy holiday shoppers. NRF’s 2013 Holiday Returns Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics found the average person returned nearly four holiday gifts last year. More than 60 percent also said they actually didn’t return a thing.

There’s one sure-fire way to still give a gift and help the recipient avoid any kind of hassle when making a return or exchange – a gift receipt. According to the survey, 61 percent of holiday shoppers say they give a gift receipt most or some of the time during the holiday season.

January will be just as busy for retailers as people come into the stores to redeem their new gift cards. But holiday returns will also likely continue through the month. Whether it’s because the color is all wrong or it simply doesn’t fit, we offer consumers five tips for a seamless return experience this holiday season:

1. Unwrap carefully. Original packaging is a must for some retailers when it comes to returns. As best you can, make sure all boxes and gifts are returned in the condition they were purchased.
2. Give the gift of receipts. While many retailers may allow consumers to make returns without an original or gift receipt, some don’t. To ensure a hassle-free return, it’s still a great idea to present one. If you know family or friends have plans to return an item, provide them with the original or gift receipt.
3. Make a list and check it twice. Many retailers have their return policies posted online or displayed within stores. Gift-givers should make a list of where they shopped and make note of their return policies.
4. Know your online store policies, too. While millions of gift-givers are in-store shoppers, many are purchasing gifts online. When making an online return, it’s important to know who pays for shipping (the customer or retailer) and the exact location that returned items should be sent.
5. Keep calm and shop on. Just like shopping leading up to the holidays, returns can be hectic for retailers and shoppers alike. Come prepared with patience when returning merchandise.

Download the full results of NRF’s 2013 Holiday Returns Survey here.

As the Super Bowl for the retail industry, all bets were off this weekend when many retailers opened their doors on Thanksgiving Day. NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay on Black Friday told CNBC that when all is said and done, “the consumer is the real winner.” Some retailers touted free $100 gift cards with the purchase of an iPad Air while others gave in-store shoppers a chance to win a Nexus 7 tablet or one of 10 weekend getaways. Discounts and special deals like these were a powerful combination for retailers this past weekend.

In addition to what Shay and Prosper’s Consumer Insights Director Pam Goodfellow said during NRF’s annual media briefing, here are a few of our top takeaways from the weekend:

More people were shopping, but were spending less. Discounts and low prices, combined with the fact that 53 percent of Americans started their shopping in early November, were contributing factors to shopping over the holiday weekend. Spending dropped 3 percent to $57 billion, at an average $407. But with the number of shoppers up 1 percent and Thanksgiving Day in-store traffic growing 27 percent over last year, retailers are still calling the weekend a win.

Why the uncertainty? NRF’s forecast that holiday sales will increase 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion holds strong. But Americans still aren’t sure about the staying power of the economic recovery. Family income hasn’t grown in quite some time, and next year’s added health care costs mean consumers are keeping a close eye on holiday budgets.

Millennial power. NRF’s survey of consumers found young adults 18-34 spent an average $460 over the weekend, the highest of any age group. As in years past, they showed up eager to take advantage of retailers’ Thanksgiving deals: 49 percent were at stores by midnight on Thanksgiving, with eight in 10 shopping on Thanksgiving Day and 58 percent on Black Friday. And 31 percent shopped online on Cyber Monday using mobile devices. Retailers are smart to target and engage these shoppers.

Thanksgiving weekend goes digital. Consumers want to shop when they want, where they want and how they want, regardless of the channel, and retailers are responding. Walmart saw 400 million page views on its web site on Thanksgiving Day, including customers who used smartphones, tablets and computers. And NRF found similar excitement among weekend shoppers: nearly 44 percent of what consumers spent between Thursday and Sunday was spent online, up from 42 percent last year. The average amount spent online also increased, up 3 percent at $178 over the weekend.

Cyber Monday continues to grow. Retailers were touting “cyber” deals as early as November 20, even leaking information about their own upcoming deals, and Cyber Monday was bigger than ever. More than 131 million consumers shopped online on Cyber Monday, up from 129 million last year, according to numbers from NRF and our Shop.org division. Sites like CyberMonday.com worked overtime to attract holiday shoppers, and retailers ramped up efforts to perfect their mobile sites and apps to make sure they had the capacity to handle expected traffic. In just one example, eBags founder Peter Cobb told me his company’s sales were up 21 percent over last year by 3 p.m. on the big day.

The most telling Cyber Monday consumer statistic might be in the numbers for mobile. More than 25 million Cyber Monday shoppers – nearly one in five – shopped using their smartphones or tablets, up 22 percent over last year. As NRF Senior Vice President and Shop.org Executive Director Vicki Cantrell told Bloomberg, it’s this influx of mobile that has the retail industry’s attention during the holidays and year-round.

It’s clear: a side of shopping fits nicely with millions of Americans’ Thanksgiving Day diet. In all, 33 million people planned to shop in stores or online Thursday, but Black Friday still makes the most of the holiday shopping pie.

NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay joined CNBC’s Squawk on the Street this morning to discuss the impact these earlier openings could have on holiday sales, trends to expect over the weekend and more. Shay also explained some of the factors driving consumer sentiment and how retailers are responding to this mindset to attract shoppers over the holiday weekend. Watch the segment below.

NRF recently released the preliminary results of its Thanksgiving weekend shopping survey. What were your top takeaways from that survey regarding  planned shopping on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the holiday weekend?

I’ve been asked on multiple occasions if the holiday “creep” – retailers’ early promotions and early bird shopping habits among consumers – is pulling consumers away from the shopping extravaganza that is Black Friday (and now Thanksgiving) weekend. As of early November, more than three out of five holiday shoppers (61 percent) were planning to shop that weekend, down a few points from a year ago (65 percent) – so the “creep” may be shifting some of those Black Friday sales earlier. I think it’s important to remember, though, that a lot of retailers have yet to announce their specific deals, promotions and discounts for the weekend, so there’s still plenty of time for shoppers to get excited about shopping that weekend. And, we’ve estimated that about 33 million consumers plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day while 97 million are planning to visit stores and websites on Black Friday – that’s still a lot of shoppers.

Prosper Insights & Analytics Consumer Insights Director Pam Goodfellow

For the seventh consecutive year, gift cards came in as the most-requested gift item, according to NRF. The survey also found spending on gift cards is expected to reach an all-time high this holiday season. Why do you think consumers gravitate towards gift cards each year for holiday gifts?

To recipients, gift cards are simply the perfect gift: you never have to exchange them for a new size/color or worry about receiving duplicates (because that’s OK, too!). Of course, gift cards allow recipients to ultimately choose their own gifts, whether they are more practical or more on the extravagant side. And for gift card givers, they are an easy purchase: buyers don’t have to worry about retailers selling out of cards, carrying packages in and out of stores, or wrapping and shipping large packages across the country. Gift cards also make the perfect last-minute gift, with many retailers and websites allowing shoppers to send virtual gift cards to recipients’ email or social media accounts.

Consumers still have feelings of uncertainty with the state of the U.S. economy. But there seems to be some relief coming from prices at the gas pump. Do you think the decrease in gas prices will comfort consumers to spend more on holiday gifts? Or do you see “cautious conservatism” being a factor during the winter holidays like the back-to-school season?

Cautious conservatism and budget-conscious will continue to be major buzzwords among shoppers this holiday season. Although some of the “pain at the pump” has eased for consumers, they are still uncertain about the direction of the economy, the outlook for employment, and uncertainty in Washington, D.C.; these overarching concerns will keep budgets tight this season. Plus, shoppers have done an excellent job honing smart shopping strategies (price comparisons, couponing, sale shopping, etc.) over the years, so they’re still going to be on the lookout for the best possible deals and not spend any money that they don’t have to. And from what I’ve seen already from retailers this holiday season, there will be plenty of deals out there for shoppers to choose from.

Mobile retailing continues to grow, and Shop.org recently found that Americans are now using the Internet more from their mobile devices than their laptops and desktops. What trends do you expect to see over the coming weeks from mobile-using holiday shoppers?

Mobile devices like tablets and smartphones are the new shopping buddies for consumers when they’re at the stores. Expect to see a lot of shoppers scanning barcodes to find the best prices, using QR codes to get more information and product reviews – and I think we’ll see many consumers out and about over Black Friday weekend keeping tabs on retailers’ deals by the hour by checking out retailers’ websites and apps. We’ve definitely entered the era of the “SmartConsumer.”

What other trends are you noticing or looking for based on other Prosper Insights and Analytics holiday surveys?

One of the most interesting trends we’ve been tracking is spending by generation. And while Millennials are the “hot” consumer segment right now, these youngsters will be the smallest spenders this holiday season (planning to spend, on average, $601 on gifts, décor, cards, food, and flowers) compared with Gen X-ers ($847), Boomers ($738), and members of the silent generation ($688). So while Millennials present exciting long-term selling potential for retailers, Gen X-ers and Boomers still represent 67 percent of total planned gift spending this holiday season – and are segments that retailers cannot afford to ignore this year.

Source: NRF’s 2012 Black Friday survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.

That’s not to say Black Friday will ever lose its luster with holiday shoppers. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. In 2012, ShopperTrak named Black Friday the biggest shopping day of the year – a title the day has held for the past few years. And according to NRF’s 2012 survey, more than 88 million consumers shopped online and in stores on Black Friday, the most of any day during the entire holiday weekend. But we can’t ignore the evidence: more than 35 million shoppers headed downtown on Thanksgiving Day.

While opening on Thanksgiving Day doesn’t work for every company, those who did so in 2012 opened their doors to millions of holiday shoppers eager to “shop off” that pumpkin pie and turkey dinner. (Shopping isn’t just therapy!) The results speak for themselves: 28 percent of those who shopped that weekend were at stores by midnight on Thanksgiving, up from 24 percent in 2011 and just 10 percent in 2010.

Some of the explanation for the growth lies in the math itself – more companies are now open on Thanksgiving. But many retailers have learned through direct feedback from Thanksgiving shoppers that they prefer to shop at night than to set the alarm and brave the cold on the morning of Black Friday. (Of course, there are plenty of bargain hunters who do both.) Millennials seem especially interested in hitting the stores a day early: 36 percent of those between 18 and 34 shopped on Thanksgiving Day, the highest of any age group. That same demographic was also the largest group to shop on Black Friday (72%).

What started as a test-run for a few companies in 2010 has now turned into another shopping tradition for millions of Americans. And, considering the state of the economy this holiday season, we expect retailers will eagerly welcome bargain hunters flocking to stores and shopping online.

Let’s look at some stats. NRF expects consumers to spend $6.9 billion on Halloween this year, an average of $75 per person that represents an increase of nearly $30 since 2005. This year, 70 percent of Americans will buy Halloween decorations for their home, yard or office, slightly more than the 69 percent who plan to do so for Christmas. The $21 average spent on life-size pumpkins, skeletons and more is second to the $51 shoppers will spend on Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanza decorations. The number of people buying sweet treats for Halloween actually beats out Easter, at 95 percent compared with 91 percent.

What else is in store this year? Our newest infographic takes a glimpse at the ways Americans plan to celebrate Halloween in 2013– including children, adults and even pets.