21th/24th -> celebrating with family the winter solstice 25th -> visiting the extended family 26th -> visiting friends
27-30th -> congress \o/
31th -> celebrating a new year either close to the congress or with family again
Works very well for very long time. Plenty of families with kids on the congress too and you always have holidays at that time.
Im not single and i'm not 20...
A lot of people spend more than 1 or 2 days visiting family during Christmas time, and travel long distances to do so.
That's already hectic and stressfull without the congress part, especially if any of the preparatinon for those meetups falls to you.