Retail Excellence has called for the Government to bring forward the re-opening date of non-essential trade to Monday November 30 - at the latest - from midnight on Tuesday December 1.
It has also called for the easing of Covid-19 restrictions to enable shoppers to cross county lines and to accommodate indoor dining in coffee shops, cafes and restaurants.
Retailers must also be allowed to extend trading hours as needed for December, Retail Excellence said.
Retail Excellence's member companies employ 280,000 people around the country.
Duncan Graham, Managing Director of Retail Excellence, said this is the most critical week of the year for retailers, and the country simply can not afford to get the big decisions around reopening non-essential retail wrong.
"A billion Euro in sales is normally done per week at this time of year", he said. "So even by bringing it forward by two days, that's a massive impact on retailers who are at the moment really struggling to survive."
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Mr Graham said retailers have "done everything that's been asked of them" throughout this year to make their premises as safe as possible, and they will continue to do so.
He described the measures imposed on the retail industry as "the most draconian in Europe" and warned that there will be further job losses if the retail sector is not given the opportunity to trade between now and Christmas.
"Don't we owe it to the Irish public to give them a reasonable Christmas?" Mr Graham said. "To enable them to do what is reasonably normal at this time of year? Let's face it, it's not going to be normal with this virus around, but we do need to get some form of normality back here.
"So we're doing it as much as anything for peoples' mental health, as well as for economic reasons."
