With the holiday season on our doorstep and kids off from school the last week of the year, many youth sports teams either play in tournaments or take advantage of readily available gyms to get in extra practices or conditioning.

It’s also a popular time for holiday gatherings.

When youth sports activities are held during the break, parents must decide how to handle the situation when they interfere with holiday gatherings. Or as some might say, when the holiday gatherings interfere with youth sports.

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The first question to consider is the importance of the holiday gathering. Is it your “family Christmas” or just a cookie-eating fest with the neighbors?

If it’s the former, the decision is an easy one in our household. Family gatherings take precedence over all youth sports activities the week after Christmas. Family comes first.

If it’s not an important family gathering, the situation gets a bit trickier. If the parents’ friends are hosting the holiday party, the player will most likely prefer to go to their practice or game. But in many cases, that also means the parents have to miss the party to drive them there.

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Our rule in this situation is that if it’s not a family gathering and there is a game, my boys must attend, even if that means we as parents miss a party. After all, we as a family made the commitment to the team, and in most cases knew there were going to be games over the holiday when the schedule was distributed at the beginning of the season.

However, unlike the parents’ party, if it’s the player’s friends getting together to eat cookies and watch a movie, there’s a good chance they’ll want youth sports to take a back seat for that one night. If it’s a game, the above rule still applies – they must go play.

However, if it’s “just” a practice over the holiday, my boys have the choice to attend or not as long as the coach says it’s optional. After all, it’s their holiday vacation. If they want to miss one optional practice to go to a holiday gathering of any sort, then I’m fine with that. This includes if the neighborhood “posse” decides to go to the movies or have a sleepover gorging on Christmas cookies.

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I don’t think this sends the message that practice isn’t important. Instead, I think it reminds them that there’s more to life than youth sports. And also, next year when my boys complain that I make them miss an activity to go to a family gathering, I can remind them: “Remember, last year you chose to miss a practice to stay home and eat cookies.”

Happy holidays!

Jon Buzby has been involved in and writing about youth sports for the past 30 years, originally as a coach and board member with his now-adult son and most recently "just as a dad" with his 8- and 10-year-old sons. Jon is an award-winning writer and his latest book, “Coaching Kids Made Easier,” is available on Amazon. Send comments or future blog topics you'd like to see to JonBuzby@hotmail.com and follow him @YouthSportsBuzz on Twitter.