I never understood layaway- so you are essentially lending the store money, with a fee on top?! I guess its forced saving for people who don't have money saved up already, or don't have the discipline to save.
Can you make payments online or by phone? Otherwise, I'm forced to keep going back to the store, if I just want that one item (tv set, lets say)- TIME IS MONEY- I think this is what hurts people who don't have money saved up, they waste their TIME.
I just overheard a woman talking to her parents at McDonald's yesterday- she said she had been getting fast food (expensive) for her family for the last week, since she didn't have TIME to go grocery shopping. Now if she had carved out 1 HOUR to go shopping, she certainly would have made back both the TIME and MONEY of going for fast food for a week!

Save up the money, buy the item with your credit card, and then pay off the bill every month....

Try this one on for size. We tried it last year and had so much fun we are doing it again this year. For the grand kids(2)we buy several gifts at a total of $100 fo each kid. For every one else WE EXCHANGE A $5 gift. and then everyone buys a five dollar grab bag gift. It can be a real challenge but if you try hard you would be surprised what you can get. Everyone had a good laugh at some of the gifts and no one was stressed out about if they are spending more on one than the other.

Christmas rule in our house...only children under five and immediate family. And I don't like giving out toys because I don't like receiving a ton of crappy toys for my son. I'll usually check out the situations of the families I give their kids gifts, and if it's in my budget to get them something they NEED, I'll get it. For example, I have a friend who just became unemployed and has two children, one goes to school, the other doesn't. I overheard her talking to her husband about how their older son desperately needs uniforms because he's going thru a growth spurt. Now my gift to them are uniforms for the school aged child and the other child, I have no idea as of yet. But even if the gift isn't "WOW", I know and have the peace of mind that it won't go in a toy box a few days after they get bored with it.

We normally do gift exchange for the kids in my family and my siblings. This year I can't afford to do either. My parents have 15 grandkids... Can't afford it! All the kids names would go in a hat and each kid would draw a name. Whose name they draw for is who they purchase a gift for. So, for those of you who don't know I have 5 kids. Which means, I buy my 5 kids for Christmas, my fiance has 2 kids, So that means I'm shopping for my "7" and then gift exchance for 7 at $20 a piece. That adds up!!! But anyways my youngest niece said the most cutest thing EVER to me.. She loves how my youngest daughter dresses. My youngest daughter is a HUGE fan of Abercrombie clothes (sorry, if it's not on clearance sale she doesn't get it, unless she buys it with her own money). But back to my niece she said "Aunt Heidi, Can you get me an abercrombie gift card for Christmas?" I said "Baby Girl, I don't have the money this year." She sweetly replied "It's ok, just get me the card. You don't have to have them put money on it." I don't know what is so fascinating about the card. But my sweet 8 year old niece wants one!

As for the layaways, I think they are a hassle. I recall having layaways on and going to pick them up, standing in lines for ever waiting for someone to come back to the layaway department then waiting for an hour for them to find my layaway. Then learning there were things missing out of the layaways.. etc. Besides the stores that did the layaways the past couple of years haven't had anything in stock worth putting a layaway on for...

I've never done the layaway thing, but I think the draw is you can buy an item that may be out of stock by the time you save up for it and/or maybe take advantage of a sale that won't be going on by the time you save up...