I'm with you on December being crazy! In between 25th November and 20th December there are 4 family birthdays (not to mention buying presents, work and everything else - just like you said)!
Is it ok if I sneak in some icons (depending when you have time for the voting)? I'd also offer the suggestion of going for a 2 week challenge. At another icontest on LJ that's usually weekly, I saw that they were planning a challenge that's scheduled to be open for roughly a month (there's currently a poll if people want to do larger and / or holiday themed challenges for it). Those might be viable alternates for you this month!