Putting a query letter in in the run up to christmas?

If your ms is ready, I wouldn't wait till January, unless you wanted to revise again. You can't assume agents/publishers don't work during the holiday season. It's not like the whole writing industry shuts down because of the holidays. There's still days between that where agents/publishers do in fact work. Your response times might be slower. But an agent that may be looking for a ms just like yours now, might not be looking for something like that months down the road.

Just like pretty much every non-retail/non-hospitality/non-food business, most agencies are closed (or might as well be) between about December 20 to January 3 or so.

So what? Dude it's only October. Business does not grind to a halt three months in advance of the winter holiday.

You get in line, agents respond to the line in the order received, and it takes as long as it takes. You'll probably have an answer before Christmas if you get in line now. If you wait until after Christmas... you'll have an answer in late winter or early spring of 2015. Your choice.

For the record: I've had offers from publishers on dates like 12/23, 12/27 and 1/2... so some people are working! And I've offered representation to somebody on Christmas Eve.

Also, don't bank on that 5-8 weeks timeline. Several people on this board (and elsewhere) have gotten responses in under 20 minutes, with full requests coming inside a day. You never when an agent will open his/her email queue.

Speaking from personal experience, I had an agent send a request because my query happened to pop into her email as she was sitting down for lunch. You can't plan for things like that.

Send the query when you're ready, period. It'll just end up in the queue anyway. The longer you wait to send it in, the longer you'll wait to get your response.

No matter what happens because of the holidays, you'll still be read much faster than all those who wait and submit in January.

Yep, I agree with the others. We can't know what any individual agent or editor is doing and all waiting does is ensure a later place in line. I hear the advice now and then to not submit over the holidays just because things slow down for the holidays. I figure it must come from someone who doesn't understand how it works. Btw, good luck!

Ooh, I've got a question kind of along the lines of this one. I've heard you should avoid sending queries in December because agents will be wary of unedited Nanos. I mean, the work should speak for itself, but is there any truth to that?

Just make sure that you're not turning in an unedited NaNo and you should be fine. Agents will be able to tell if what you've submitted has been worked on or not, so if you have a submission ready to go in December, then I'd say send it out.