The holiday season is always make or break in retail — but that goes doubly so for Saks Global this year.

The retailer closed on its $2.7 billion deal to buy Neiman Marcus Group just two days before Christmas last year, launching both into a new era.

Chief executive officer Marc Metrick has been rushing to reset the company and luxury retail. He’s made rapid progress, cutting annual costs by $200 million already and integrating the backends of the two businesses.

But more so, it’s been a year of financial strain — from a bondholder freakout over the summer when investors realized their debt wasn’t directly secured by the famous Fifth Avenue flagship to continued strains with vendors who are being very careful in what goods they ship.

The result is a department store group that is s

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