Andrea and Roberto Sanchez Garcia of Phoenix wrap holiday gifts.

PHOENIX (By Yvonne Wingett, Arizona Republic) December 14, 2004 - Carlos Rodriguez has planned his Christmas trip all year. He didn't miss a day of work. He hoarded all his personal and vacation days. He gassed up the car and wrapped the presents.

After all, he says anything that's worthwhile happens in Mexico in December during the country's biggest holiday.

Every year, like Rodriguez, thousands of immigrants and other Hispanics throughout Arizona and the nation pack up and return to their homelands for the holidays. For many, it began this week with Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day. It runs through mid-January after Dia de los Reyes, or Three Kings Day.

"I've been planning since last Christmas," said the 29-year-old Rodriguez, a sales manager who drives six hours this week to his family's home in Juarez, Chihuahua. "We follow all the traditions. You have people walking down the street with candles, singing and just praying. There's more warmth in Mexico during the holidays."

Like Rodriguez, many families leave the state for weeks and months. But the beeline for the border also causes problems at schools and the workplace: Students miss important class time, and some employers report shortages and slowdowns.

Still, the tradition is driving the growth of holiday border travel. International bus lines, border shuttles and travel agencies report big business during this time of year.

The phenomenon has become so tremendous that U.S. and Mexican border officials this year have extended crossing hours to accommodate hundreds of thousands of travelers. Operation Paisano will lengthen hours at the Mariposa border crossing at Nogales, easing the heavy traffic to Mexico.

Acapulco Travel in Maryvale triples its ticket sales in the weeks leading up to the holidays. Agents sell hundreds of round-trip and one-way tickets to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Morelia, Zacatecas and Oaxaca, manager Carmen Cortez said.

"Sometimes people only go one way because they want to spend months with their families," said Cortez, adding that this year's sales are bigger than ever. "They work for years, then wait for that special December to be together with their families."

Wedding in Guerrero

Just like Mercedes Garcia and his family, who boarded a plane last week for a two-month trip home. They bought one-way tickets to Chilpancingo, Guerrero, a working-class city one hour east of ritzy Acapulco.

There, the father of three will marry off his oldest daughter with a small Chilpancingo-style wedding. Then his family will travel around the country to visit tias (aunts), nanas (grandmothers) and longtime friends. They will greet them with recuerdos de Arizona, small tokens from the state.

"They're going to get to know my family," said Garcia, 41, of north Phoenix.

"My children aren't too familiar with my family. This helps familiarize them with the customs of Mexico, with la cultura."

In Mexico, the holidays are about family, friends and religion. Unless one travels to border towns, Santa Claus, his reindeer and gifts are secondary. Depending on the region, women spend weeks making traditional winter dishes of tamales, posole, menudo and mole. And after Christmas Eve Mass, families open gifts when the clock strikes midnight.

"It's all about food instead of decoration," said Roberto Sanchez Garcia of south Phoenix.

"You put up a Christmas tree, but you don't go out of your way, like the Chevy Chase movie."

On Friday, Garcia will drive home to Hermosillo, Sonora, where 80 members of his family from all over Mexico get together each year.

"You meet new aunts, cousins," he said. "This is the only time of the year where everybody - and I'm talking everybody - comes home."

And they stay for weeks and sometimes months, creating problems for employers and educators.

Mexican border officials issued more than 146,000 permits to travelers crossing south through Nogales last year, from Nov. 19, 2004, through Jan. 11.

But the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix and U.S. border officials believe the figure to be much higher, or about 800,000. No one in the United States tracks those numbers. Mexican tourism officials did not return calls for comment.

'Perpetual problem'

Those numbers add up to low production for some employers, experts say. Especially in the Valley's service industries, where Hispanics fill many dishwashing, housekeeping and landscaping jobs.

"It's a perpetual problem," said Harry Garewal, president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "When you're relying on tourism as much as Phoenix is, the state of Arizona is, it does have a profound impact."

Extended time away from the classroom puts children at a disadvantage, especially English-learners, Valley educators and school administrators say. Parents who travel to central and southern Mexico for the holidays typically pull children out of school a week before and after the typical two-week holiday break, they said.

"Oftentimes . . . that means the children are behind when they return," said Ruth Ann Marston, member of the Phoenix Elementary School District board, where more than 95 percent of students are minorities and mostly Hispanic.

"And we may or may not be able to help them catch up," she said. "If you're going to take your kids away, let us know so we can help them."

Yvette Lopez spent this weekend shopping for her family's annual trip to Ciudad Obregon, Sonora. The Tucson Hispanic, her husband and baby boy leave Dec. 23 for their four-day holiday and family reunion.

"We blend the American traditions and the celebration of Jesus," said Lopez, 28. "It's . . . about catching up with what we missed the other 11 months of the year."

Reach the reporter at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-4712.