If you’ve noticed an unusual abundance of engagement announcements popping up on your Facebook feed over the past few months, you’re not alone. According to WeddingWire, a Bethesda, MD company that provides technology for wedding companies, 33 percent of engagements take place in the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

It makes sense: It’s almost as if the holiday season, with its glistening, cozy atmosphere, is designed to enable proposals. Family and friends gather. Year-end bonuses render the purchase of a ring slightly less taxing on the wallet. Vacation days provide extra time to pull off a splendid proposal.

" Christmas is by far the number one day for engagements," says Mark Vadon, the chief executive and a founder of Bluenile.com, an online jewelry retailer in Seattle, WA. "It is a season when you're thinking about other people who are meaningful in your life. People are emotional. And an engagement is an important event you want to share with others, especially your family. Think about it. You're about to spend the holidays with your in-laws. There's a little pressure there to step up and propose."

Jewelers, too, join in the celebration during this period. They make 36 percent of their yearly sales from October through December. Come January, the financial benefits shift over to the wedding industry, as bridal shops, venue owners, and wedding planners face increased demand for their services.

Indeed, the wedding industry has happily hopped onto the holiday proposal bandwagon. Bridal magazines release special holiday issues. In fact, Brides Magazine consistently reports the highest sales for its January edition, which sold 250 ad pages in January 2011 compared to the 40 which is average for most women’s magazines during the month. Retailers offering wedding registries organize events for couples to check out their stock. Wedding sites experience a surge in web traffic. Sonny Ganguly, WeddingWire’s chief marketing officer, says that new user registration skyrockets on the Monday after New Year’s Day. Throughout the month of January, the site’s most popular features include reviews of local venues and a checklist intended to help couples keep track of their progress as they plan their nuptials.

Yet the wedding-planning blitz is not limited to the newly-engaged, either. Couples who popped the question long before the holidays also get swept up in the frenzy.

“Over the holiday, everyone asks these girls, ‘When’s your wedding? What’s your wedding date?’ And those who don’t have an answer want an answer quick,” says Jennifer Stiebel, founder of SoCo Events, a Washington wedding-planning firm. “If they don’t have that all squared up, panic sets in.”

Perhaps as a result of this phenomenon, however, the holiday season sees the smallest number of actual weddings -- according to a 2004 study from the Condé Nast Bridal Group, only 8 percent of couples choose to tie the knot in December. Most of these ceremonies take place between the milder months of May and August.