Overall UK footfall figures for December were 2.6 per cent down on 2006, according to Experian company FootFall, while figures for the core shopping days of Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and December 27 combined to reveal a small overall rise in shoppers for that week.

But some shopping centres failed to be affected, reportedly enjoying a successful Christmas.

Merry Hill bucked the national trend and was nearly 3 per cent up on visitor numbers on 2006, helped by various events such as the celebrity Christmas light switch on with Jason Donovan on November 15, Santa's arrival with Bob the Builder on November 17, an NSPCC charity Christmas movie premiere with Odeon showing Alvin and the Chipmunks, which raised over £2,000, and being open until midnight in the week commencing December 17, with late night live musicians.

Northampton shopping centre Weston Favell's Christmas launch on November 17 saw footfall up 8 per cent on the same day last year. The day featured a Christmas parade around the centre, the grand switch-on of the lights and the opening of Santa's grotto, which included a 'Sleigh Ride Experience'.

The Harvey Centre in Harlow also reported record footfall figures throughout December, culminating in a massive 435,609 visits in the week before Christmas.

The total visitor figures for the four weeks before Christmas reached 1,477,422, indicating that footfall rose steadily throughout December, bucking the national trend. Retailers at the centre also benefited.

Nikki Shore, store manager at The Harvey Centre's Marks & Spencer, says: "Christmas was great for us. We were £1 up on every transaction and footfall has been exceptional."

The Harvey Centre's new website (www.harveycentre.com) was also subjected to increased interest with 58,313 hits during December. The most popular viewed page, apart from the homepage, was the store search, proving that people still wanted to shop in person rather than online.

The Harvey Centre's grotto was also successful and welcomed almost 20,000 children through its doors.

St James shopping centre in Edinburgh reported record footfall of over 1.9 million over the festive period. The number of shoppers through the doors between December 1 and December 23 rose by more than 14 per cent compared to last year.

Sally Henley, centre manager of Land Securities' new Princesshay shopping centre in Exeter, also reported strong Christmas sales. She says: "Anecdotal evidence and retailers' feedback indicates that Princesshay traded extremely well last Christmas, with shoppers flocking to the city from across the region.

"The Christmas lights were compared with Oxford Street by Exeter shoppers and our programme of festive street entertainment was a big hit. Footfall during the post-Christmas period has also been brisk and we're now looking forward to working with our retailers and restaurants to make 2008 an even greater success."

thecentre:mk in Milton Keynes also defied the current retail market trends by delivering exceptional performance over the festive period, with record footfalls and top retailers taking up to £1,000 a minute.

Last year was the centre's strongest Christmas in history, with a record footfall of 1 million visitors in the week leading up to Christmas. Christmas Eve and Boxing Day sales increased by 23 per cent and 11 per cent against last year's results, and December 27 marked the busiest day on record with over 190,000 visitors - a 5 per cent increase on last year.

Robert Goodman, centre director at thecentre:mk, says: "The run up to Christmas saw shoppers coming out en masse with a record week of 1 million people. The sales built on that momentum with shoppers attracted by the department and major store offers at thecentre:mk, generating its biggest ever footfall in a single day."

Additionally, one of the centre's new seasonal lettings, Calendar Club, reported its highest turnover from thecentre:mk outlet, marking it as the most successful out of 1,000 outlets worldwide.

Over 20,000 children visited thecentre:mk's Santa's grotto, with up to 900 on its busiest day.

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