Far be it from me to say something bad about Valve, but i think they have given their customers the royal shaft. They had set a date and even a launch location. Then weeks before it comes out, they say, "oops, wait till the holidays."
1) You dont set dates if you arent going to launch something..
and most importantly,
2) If you absolutely HAVE to, then you could at least postpone it till a real date... or even a month would do. heck, i'd settle for a quarter. Q4 would at least rule out January, right? I dont think "holiday season" does.