Deploy freezes are not necessarily about preventing incidents, but rather controlling the risk (which is not just "what broke" but "how long was it broken"). A

Deploy freezes are not necessarily about preventing incidents, but rather controlling the risk (which is not just "what broke" but "how long was it broken"). A normally small incident that happens while everyone is out enjoying their holidays might end up being worse than a large incident that happens at 10am on a Tuesday while everyone is at their desks and can respond immediately. There's also varying costs (not all monetary) to responding to an incident. I'm going to be very upset at my employer if I get called in on Christmas because there was a deploy going on that caused issues. First week of January, that's just expected.