* Small speculators push cotton up

* Major players sidelined, done for the year

NEW YORK Dec 22 (Reuters) - - Cotton futures closed with small gains Thursday on buying by small investors as the market drifted quietly in a band with many investors gone for the Christmas and New Year holidays, analysts said.

The key March cotton futures went up 0.40 cent to close at 87.24 cents per lb, trading from 86.60 to 87.44 cents. On Wednesday, the range was 86.26 to 87.38 cents. The contract has been stuck between 85 and 88 cents the past few sessions.

Volume traded stood at slightly over 4,500 lots, more than three-quarters under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.

'This has been a very, very quiet week and today was no different,' said Sharon Johnson, senior cotton analyst at commodities brokerage Penson Futures in Atlanta, Georgia.

Traders said fund managers and big investors in commodity markets have probably closed their books for the year and will not be back until next month.

Technically, the March contract climbed over the 10-day moving average near 87 cents which may have encouraged some buying, and players are now taking aim at the 20-day MA at 89.31 cents.

Fundamentally, the market is struggling from weak demand caused by fears the debt and budget crisis in the EU and the United States would slow cotton usage.

The weekly U.S. Agriculture Department export sales report provided little inspiration to fiber contracts.

USDA said net U.S. upland cotton sales reached 69,500 running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each) while shipments stood at a 2011/12 (august/July) 191,100 RBs.

Open interest in the cotton market, an indicator of investor exposure, came to 150,878 lots as of Dec. 21, from the prior session's 150,183 lots, exchange data showed.

Total volume traded on Wednesday hit 8,830 lots, against the previous 9,136 lots, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.