Gift Giving - An excersize in planning

This past weekend was my girlfriend's birthday, and being the kind of person I am, I was pretty excited to get her something that she'd consider an awesome gift. Like many others, I'm sure, I really enjoy giving people gifts. I'm fairly well off, all things considered, and love knowing that I can do nice things for the people that make my life better by being themselves and being involved in my life. Now, this isn't a whiny post about how giving people gifts affects my personal finances, because I love doing it. It's more a question of how you folks plan for it. Do you keep a separate account for gift giving and contribute to it like a vacation fund? is it just something factored into each month's budget? etc etc etc...

Considering that the major days are pretty predictable (Christmas, birthdays, Valentines, etc...) I usually just plan it out in that month's budget. But the more i think of it, it might eb simpler if i was stashing away a little extra on the months when there aren't any big occasions, to lessen the impact on the big months. Also then there is money sitting around for spontaneous gifts (like flying my mother and brother out for Thanksgiving this year...).

So? Anyone want to share how they consider this?