Yes, the holidays can be a good opportunity to force a child to take sides. It's another example of where the women usually show less compassion than the men because I can think of many more cases where it was the woman who was the one turning the children against the father, using them to take out her revenge.
I'll agree with that to a point. I've seen men do the very same thing...but personally witnessed it being the woman.
What's truly sad is that this kind of selfish, prideful, and hurtful behavior results in devastating the child. That's a crime.