Years ago, I worked in a job where there were recurring tasks that needed to be performed every day of the year, holidays included. During the time I was with this organization, I worked on Thanksgiving and another guy worked on Christmas.

The point being just that, yeah, there are some jobs that need people present all the time. Sad but true. If you feel you are being singled out in some unjust way, discussing it with management or HR or whomever seems appropriate. If you just somehow got picked at random, it would be reasonable to ask to switch -- maybe you can volunteer for the next holiday -- but a lot of people expect Christmas off, regardless of personal beliefs, so there might not be anyone willing to trade. :-)

Did you apply for/announce leave in advance or were you just expecting to be off that day?

I'd personally prefer my employer to not track the religions of its employees and then feed that to whatever people and software they have doing scheduling. I'd be more surprised (not pleasantly) if they did that than if I got scheduled for work on solstice.

If your employer slaps you on your cheek, offer the other one.

Where i work i worked last Christmas so i get this one off.

Saying that i'm athiest myself so Christmas is more just a nice tradition for me, so having to work it is just annoying.

> they are making me work

Who? If you're in an on-call position then this is pretty typical.

Pretty easy to imagine these two things being entirely unrelated.

Did you voice your concerns to your manager?