A lot of annual leave left to take

Hi all,

I was saving up my leave throughout the year for a plan that fell through. I made my manager aware in October that I still had a significant amount of leave left to take. I took a couple of days in October and have a few days booked off for November.

After all that, I still have twelve days annual leave days left to take. A week ago, I applied to use the rest of the annual leave in December and was told 'arrangements for December' haven't been made yet so they can't approve it. However, my department is shut down from 23/12 until the New Year and my colleague has had his leave approved for that time.

Most of my time the past month has spent covering others as the company has been short-staffed. It's expected that I may need to cover other staff until the new year. My manager implied that it would save a lot of hassle if I carried some of my leave over to use the next year but company policy is you can carry two days until January 31st max.

I don't want to leave it too late and not be able to use my leave in the end.

Has anyone any advice?

TLDR: My manager knows I have a lot of leave to take. I've asked to use it in December but I've been told that their December arrangements haven't been made yet. My department will be closed over Christmas and my colleague's leave was already approved.