[jimbob45]

I think it's less about the cash than the PTO. People plan ahead for time off during the holidays. If instead you have to spend the holidays frantically looking for employment, then you're massively stressed during what should be a time of relaxation. The stress placed on the employee simply isn't proportionate to how little it would take for the company to wait two more weeks to lay people off (or plan ahead and lay them off earlier).

[DamnYuppie]

To the OP's point. If you have a reasonable emergency savings account you will not have to be looking for a job over the holidays. Also there is no one looking to hire over the Holidays anyway so might as well take a beat, regroup, and focus on enjoying your time off. I know getting laid off sucks and is a kick in the gut, I have personally been laid off a few days before Christmas one year early in my career. Having the emergency fund made it not a frantic scramble and I was able to get another job starting in January.

Also one of the reasons companies fire them before the end of the year is if company pays bonuses and you are an employee at the end of the year you get said bonus even if you aren't employed at the company when they pay them out. I think a few states have laws saying you can't get around that by firing them a few days before the end of the year but I am not sure which ones.