What happened to the Great Depression II?

Carpe Diem points out that holiday retail sales were up over the weekend from last year.

Yet the CNN Money article with the same chart contains more of the doom-and-gloom reports, writing "signs persist that holiday shopping will suffer in the weakest economic climate in decades" despite higher sales than 2007, which was higher that 2006, which was higher than 2005, which was higher than 2004, which was higher than 2003, which was higher than 2002, which was higher than 2001, which was higher than 2000, which was higher than 1999.