I agree with you, Kate12whisper13. I like Harry Potter, and the Order of the Phoenix is the biggest of the Harry Potter books to date (and it wasn't my favorite). My favorites are 3 & 6. Yet, who really knows if something big is going to come out in the winter of 2007? That's a bit far off, even for movies to speculate about what will come out.
One thing is clear to me, good movies around the holidays are a great thing, they get one out of the house, away from the stress of shopping and gives people something relaxing to do. I go to more movies in the wintertime than in the summer, and because of the overall Narnia feel, something about a winter release does feel more real to me than any other time of the year.
The best argument I have for the speculated time of release, that they can really push the DVD sales on LWW, and they can really put the time into the film in order to get it perfect for release. Releasing it too soon makes for sloppy work, and then they will kick themselves saying 'we should have done it that way'. So, although it's going to be a wait, I'd rather do so and see something worth waiting for than to be disappointed.