With holiday spending on clothes and toys off to a chilly start, worried retailers are plying shoppers with an early gift: Black Friday-style bargains extended into December.

Merchants get nervous each year during the dreaded early-December shopping lull, when consumers rest their wallets before swarming back into malls at the last minute — if they return at all. But this time, shoppers are splurge-shy, there’s a dearth of hot new fashion trends, and the key Thanksgiving weekend failed to deliver hoped-for sales.

“This is the last thing you want to be dealing with, the lack of forward momentum,” said Columbia Business School professor Mark Cohen. “The panic is on.”

That was underscored this week by the Commerce Department’s report on November retail sales, which rose 0.7 percent from October. The increase beat forecasts, mostly because analysts “were bracing for modest disappointment, which lowered the bar of expectations,” said Sterne Agee Chief Economist Lindsey Piegza.

While the gauge was bolstered by strong gains in big-ticket items such as cars and home improvement goods, sales in the categories normally popular for Christmas gifts — apparel, sporting goods and general merchandise — fell or were flat.

The average consumer spent nearly 4 percent less during the shopping blowout weekend than last year. On top of that, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the shortest it’s been in a decade.

Recent retail sales “can euphemistically be described as lackluster,” Cohen said.

Analysts interpreted November’s 0.7 percent upswing — the largest in five months — as a promising sign, in line with gains in the stock market, a reprieve from high pump prices and improving home values.

But the government numbers “run against the grain of the early holiday shopping season reports,” which have generally been less than enthusiastic, according to Credit Suisse.

Analysts also said that the swing into big-ticket retail — a 1.8 percent month-to-month increase at auto and parts dealers, a 1.2 percent boost at furniture stores — makes shoppers less inclined to spend extra money on toys and apparel. The clothing and accessories category slumped 0.2 percent last month.

“Consumer confidence and sentiment are steadily improving, but spending remains at a modest pace,” said National Retail Federation Chief Executive Matthew Shay. “While it seems that the economy is improving, the future remains far from certain.”