Right now is a great time to sit down to create a plan for your holiday gift shopping without accumulating a pile of debt.

FORBES: Holiday Shopping Savings Tips

It caused me to reboot my ingrained thinking and come up with a new game plan for how to joyfully participate in the holiday season in a way that felt right to me.

FORBES: Have Less Holiday Financial Stress

Read the October 2010 Money Wise Women newsletter for lots of ideas on creating a holiday gift shopping plan.

FORBES: Weathering a Financial Storm

And more than a quarter of the 2, 000 polled plan to take their children out of school for a holiday this year.

BBC: School term-time holidays: 'Most parents take them'

The founder of the High Street chain, Richard Tompkins, was on holiday in the Greek town when he settled on the plan for catalogue shops.

BBC: Quiz of the week's news

Lawmakers waited until the end of business on Friday for the long public holiday weekend in a "well-orchestrated" plan, according to Hart.

CNN: Cyprus deposit tax 'overnight robbery,' says businessman

The combative Mr Lafontaine resists cuts in taxes for the rich so long as Mr Kohl's loophole-closing plan does away with the current tax breaks for night, weekend, holiday and other work which, the Social Democratic leader thinks, his own supporters have particularly enjoyed.

ECONOMIST: Germany

And you have a holiday season that is 50 times x, it's impossible to plan for that.

BBC: American Giant: The problems of being an overnight success

Seeking to continue its momentum, Wal-Mart is rolling out its holiday layaway plan one month earlier than last year and offering discounts on gasoline for customers who use its branded credit and debit cards through Dec. 24.

FORBES: Three Dividend-Paying Stocks To Buy For The Long Run