I'm jsut hoping they come. It seems the UW quests and candysmiths are gone for now. Haven't logged in for a few hours tho so I'll have to check again soon. They usually were there from the start.
Given that this is quite a long festival there will be lots of time for them to arrive and set up.
A change to the usual setup would probably mean those who have been farming all year to get a vast quantity of gifts and make a killing will be miffed.