NEW YORK – A last-minute surge in spending saved the holiday shopping season.

Major retailers including Costco, Gap and Nordstrom on Thursday reported better-than-expected revenue in December. That comes as a relief for stores, which can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue in the last two months of the year.

Americans spent cautiously early in the season as the Northeast recovered from Superstorm Sandy. Then they held back because of fears that the U.S. economy would fall off the “fiscal cliff,” triggering massive budget cuts and tax increases that would have amounted to less money in their pockets. But shoppers spent more freely in the final shopping days of the year.

Twenty retailers reported that revenue at stores open at least a year rose an average of 4.5 percent in December compared with the same month a year ago, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

That’s on the high end of the expected range of 4 percent to 4.5 percent.

December’s results provide a brighter picture than reports last month that proclaimed that the holiday shopping season was shaping up to be the worst since 2008, when the United States was in a deep recession.

The season had multiple fits and starts, with healthy spending during certain periods followed by stretches of tepid sales. Overall, revenue for the combined months of November and December rose 3.1 percent, roughly on par with the 3 percent rise that the ICSC had predicted.

Sales were weak at the beginning of November in the wake of Sandy and the distraction of the U.S. presidential campaign.