The date had already been announced
I mean, you can announce you're having a 24 hour down time spanning December 23-24, and you'd probably be considered an absolute moron for doing it then instead of the 16-17th.

Thats pretty much the point of this entire thread. Why in the absolute fuck would you schedule an extended downtime over the ONLY internationally celebrated holiday for that (and other) regions in the first 40% of the year?