Saving for the December holidays always seemed daunting to me. I’d have $20/paycheck ($10/week) withheld and put automatically into a Christmas Club (that could not be withdrawn). It paid out in mid-November. While it helped quite a bit, it never quite covered the holiday toys and gifts that I needed. I was always scrambling at the end of the year and going broke.
As I learned, I also started randomly buying gifts throughout the year, in addition to the Christmas Club Account withholding. That helped somewhat also, but still didn’t cover it altogether.
Finally, I started buying gift cards every pay period. If you have certain stores that you shop from, you can change it up from pay period to pay period OR you can just get cards from one store, such as Target or Walmart or Amazon, or even get VISA gift cards to spend ANYWHERE. Of course the VISA gift cards cost more to add money to (around $5 plus whatever amount you are wanting to add). However I just found out my bank will add money to a VISA gift cards without a service fee! Awesome!
I hope this helps you afford the December holidays later this year! These are ways that you won’t liquidate the designated funds and then not have anything to show for it! Just make sure you wrap your presents (and tag them) as you buy them, and remember where you put them!