Christmas is upon us, and retail focused stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) have Wall Street feeling giddy. Have you been to the local store, or even just driving on the road lately? People are coming out of all nooks and crannies to spend their money and give the best gifts of Christmas yet. Retail HOLDRs (RTH) has holdings such as Target (TGT), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Amazon.com (AMZN) and you can bet they’re getting some shoppers.

Consumer spending is closely watched by economists because it accounts for 2/3 of economic growth. Martin Crutsinger for Associated Press reports that many analysts said the surprisingly strong November was allowing them to expand their overall growth this quarter. Slumping home sales and rising fuel costs shouldn’t stop consumers from celebrating Christmas.

SPDR S&P Retail (XRT) spreads out the holdings to PC Mall (MALL), Costco Wholesale (COST), and CVS (CVS). For the higher end consumer, Claymore/Robb Report Global Luxury (ROB) caters to Daimler (DAI), Christian Dior (CDI.PA), and Porsche (POR3.BE).

Go ahead and be giving, just don’t shop till you drop. Save some energy for a Merry Christmas!

Tags: Retail, XRT