Trying to order stuff for work at the moment, and every company I ring says 'we will not be able to deliver before Christmas - it will be sometime in the New Year'. These are fairly large orders, some over $10,000 - I thought there was meant to be a bit of a financial problem at the moment - don't they need the business? Everything seems to grind to a halt for 2 months of the year whilst everyone eats mince pies. Very frustrating.

It does seem to wind down (from what is a fairly low level of customer service anyway) for a long time here doesn't it?

Our grey water pump broke the day before Christmas Eve last year, getting someone out to fix it was a nightmare ("Gone to the beach", "Off camping", "That will be megabucks", "Ring, ring, ring, ring", etc, etc).

Eventually I found someone that would do it at a reasonable price and their business is etched in stone close to the phone.

there could be a whole raft of reasons why delivery is an issue, summer holidays combined with Christmas/NY, are they shipping in from offshore, is there customs to clear, maybe it's high demand/seasonal stuff, maybe it's low demand and been understocked to make room for novelty antlers?

purveyors of mince pies however, are doing a roaring trade

All in stock, all in Oz. Plywood is not seasonal, seasoned yes, seasonal no.

basically everyone's mind and motivation are on a summer holiday hiatus till mid february now.

I've noticed similar things each year at work. IT developers regularly put a Christmas moratorium on which last about 7 weeks, for no reason other than its the end of the year, its sunny, the girls are out and there's drinks to be had. They call it "year-end" to make it sound official, but I can see right through their facade.
December 'year end' has no real impact on their work at all. Real year-end comes at the end of the financial year, involding budget constraints, active project planning and workload prioritisation. The irony: they are not allowed to take any holiday then.

Try and get anything done in engineering in the UK in July/August - forget about it, it ain't going to happen.

I would extend that to Europe too. Some of the Nordic countries cease to operate for 6 weeks over summer holiday

I'm already winding down and won't really do much until 3rd week in Jan.

It was you on the phone today!

I'm living the dream!