Rank Quickly

I have 2 sites that are currently bouncing around position 40+ for my main keywords and both of these sites are related to the Christmas season. What would you do in order to rank these sites quickly? Everything seems short lived these days with the constant google updates so I don't even care if these sites only rank well for the next 3 months. That would be fine by me as that is when I am going to bank hard. I can deal with next year when the time comes.

Any advice?

Start from good quality content

No guarantee they will even last 3 months

But build quality now
then just before they will bring you the best income
buy sape links. or links from a private network