CEDAR RAPIDS - Check your calendars, Christmas is only 35 days away. Retailers hope new life for an old idea will drive up sales this holiday shopping season.

At the Kmart in Iowa City, people are flocking to layaway. Store managers tell me they see around 30 new layaway customers each day.

In the midst of this recession for some, layaway is the only way they can make Christmas possible.

Jeff and Jill Moore are already taking advantage of the program to make sure Santa fulfills the wish list of their five children.

"It makes things a lot easier when you don't have a lot of extra cash just trying to get the ball rolling for your Christmas," said Jeff Moore, shopper.

At the Kmart in Iowa City, one of the more popular checkouts right now is the layaway register.

"Like I said we added a register to our layaway, which we've never had to do so far and sometimes both lines are backed up," said Nancy Forrest, Asst. Manager K-Mart.

Forrest says this holiday season could be one of the busiest for the layaway program.

For Jeff and Jill, they're grateful this program is helping make Christmas a reality.

Layaway itself is nothing new, it originated during the Great Depression.

A few words of caution:
Make sure you know how long you have to pay off the bill.
Get the layaway policy in writing.
And don't use the draw of layaway to spend more than you can afford.