People keep bringing this up, but the reality is that the US holiday season slowdown is only for a handful of days and not sufficient to explain a 19-day review time.

From Apple's announcement[1]:

> On average, 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours. However, reviews may take a bit longer to complete from December 22 to 27.

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=uijoypq9