Pause only 24th and 31th nothing moar...
IF there has to be some pause, then make it as short as possible. War is war. Too bad some of guys here have lifes.
Not to speak as mentioned before: some guys cannot attend battles during night or evening or whatnot due to work restrictions, this goes off during xmas and you dont want them to have chance to finally dive into some funny 4am battles? Me personally, i work from 19th till 26th and then from 29th till 4th, so i dont care that much. But would be lovely if there were some strat battles.
I agree with Beasts suggestion, and if your gonna make a poll, add this option too:
pause only 24th and 31st