This isn't intramurals. Christmas is on a Monday this year and there will be high school basketball tournaments starting on Tuesday. None of those kids are going out of town to see relatives on Christmas. When you get selected for a team you commit to participating in team activities. You are guaranteed time to celebrate your religious holidays but you aren't necessarily guaranteed time to celebrate them in the way you did before you were on a team.

I would find this frustrating too. My kid's team is having a make-up practice this Saturday to make up for the fact there's no practice this coming Monday for Yom Kippur. We'll have to miss it since we'll be out of town traveling to be w/family for the Jewish holiday. oh well. It's stupid that it's an unexcused absence but whatever. that's on us. handing down consequences to leave practice early for religious reasons, regardless of the religion, is unacceptable.