Freeze periods for financial institutions during the holidays are necessary in order to mitigate risk to platform changes. Due to key IT stakeholders generally being out of the office on vacation during the holiday season, like everyone else, integrity is maintained via freeze periods. Types of platform changes that are ONLY allowed during these timeframes are emergency fixes, compliance issues, legal issues, regulatory issues, etc. Slimmed down skeleton IT crews are always available for these types of Freeze code periods.
Don't listen to anyone stating otherwise.