To be fair, I think December has been particularly bad for standbys as not many people have annual leave or their month off now. I don't know any FOs in my base with annual leave or their month off in December. However in January, February and March plenty of us guys have time off. For some reason they seem terrified of handing out leave around Christmas and New Year- I don't know why, it's not like people are going to skive off leaving not enough crew to operate. Perhaps it's just the 19th century "Scrooge" mentality they have in Dublin towards their staff?
Myself, I have all of my annual leave and my BRK month off in Jan-March. This is a little worrying as I've not flown much this month. However I knew this was probably going to happen as it has for the last 3 years, so it's my own stupid fault for not saving up over the summer when I blew all my money on women, fast cars and shoes. Ah well, I guess it will only be the one skiing holiday for me this winter, but I've only myself to blame for that!