My 19 year old son works for a car dealership (in the parts department, not the sales department) here in Connecticut. He works Monday through Friday. The company said that since Christmas fell on Sunday, and since he didn't work on Sundays, he wasn't eligible for any time off, or compensation for the holiday. It was my understanding that if Christmas fell on a Sunday, the day off would be Monday. The same goes for New Year's Day. Or, am I mistaken in thinking that Christmas and New Year's Day were federal holidays? Thanks in advance for all your advice!

As has been explained in many other posts, only federal employees get federal holidays off.

In private industry, holiday pay (or not) is completely up to the employer.

To explain in a bit more detail, yes, the days you mention are Federal holidays.

However, that only guarantees you the holiday off if you work for the Federal government.

There are NO holidays that employers in the private sector are required by law to offer. Think about hotels, hospitals, airlines, restaurants, police, fire and other emergency services, all the things you take for granted but are services someone has to provide. They can't be guaranteed the holiday off.

If you work for a private employer, it is entirely up to the employer whether to offer holidays and, even if they do, whether to offer a different day off when the holiday falls on a weekend.