As others have said, that’s a fairly quick panel, there’s a lot for social workers to do ahead of panel (and much of it isn’t as simple as cutting and pasting sadly). You need time to meet foster carers and the paediatrician - even if everything looks straightforward there may be issues in the birth families medical history that needs checked and explored. The foster carers need time to prepare the little one for moving to her new home, there may be contact issues for birth family, depending on where you are there may be legal processes outstanding. Social workers will also be on holiday over Christmas, or possibly be deployed to support front line teams so not much will happen until January now.
I know it’s frustrating for you but it’s not as simple as handing your child over to you. Any January panel will be full by now and social workers will be finalising those reports, they have a number of families all keen to meet their new children and I suspect if they could do it sooner they would have booked you in.
The other side, of course, is that you need time to prepare yourselves for becoming parents, the next couple of months will fly in and you’ll find yourselves busy organising the house, attending meetings, finishing up at work etc. Don’t wish this time away, use it to prepare.
In terms of birthdays and Christmas gifts, I wouldn’t - there’s still much that can happen that might mean the placement falls through and it would complicate her life story to have gifts from you before you were part of her life. Maybe buy a couple of bits for her room or a keepsake but let her have her birthday and Christmas with the family who know her and have cared for her. You’ll have many many more to celebrate with her.
If panel is end of February I guess you’ll be looking at intros early April (time for the agency decision maker to sign off and for a plan for intros to be put together) and Covid is holding things up in all kinds of ways. Patience is the name of the game here.