Christmas green..if we will stop and think

According to this months issue of AARP magazine the average American spends nearly $1000.00 during the holidays. And they offer up two plans for us to choose from.
PLAN A
Charge $1000.00 of holiday expenses to your credit card. If you pay $50 a month on that debt, you'll still owe $550.24 after paying this $50 for 50 weeks. And you won't pay it off for almsot another year(with 14.57 APR). Almost 2 years paying for Christmas present(yes Christmas present..I didnt say Christmas presents) What do we do about Christmas future. Plan A isnt sounding so good is it. And yet thats what so many of us do ..paying with plastic puts off the pain until the bill comes in. But there is a price for this waiting. We pay out huge amounts in interest for things we maybe should have waited until we had cash to buy. Or we can look at Plan B......
PLAN B
Deposit $20 a week in a "Holiday Club" savings plan at your bank. After 50 weeks you'll be $1007.84 dollars ahead of the game and ready for the 2008 holidays (with 1.5 APR.)
Plan B sounds best to me. How about you?? And yet every year it seems we Americans rack up the debt and struggle to pay it off before the next Christmas when just a little planning and a fairly painless weekly sacrifice would save us a whole lot of stress.
And it isnt even Thanksgiving yet.............