If you want to bask in the Christmas afterglow for another day, you probably should stop reading now.

That would be particularly true if you pulled out your credit cards to pay for Christmas gifts and fear you may not be able to pay them off when the bills come due.

If that is the case, an Associated Press story published on Christmas Eve at least indicates you aren’t alone.

In a trend that experts link to the subprime mortgage crisis, Americans reportedly are falling behind on their credit card payments at a significant rate. The value of credit card accounts that are at least 30 days late had jumped by 26 percent between October 2006 and October 2007. Those accounts totaled $17.3 billion.

During the same time period, account defaults – the debts lenders have given up on collecting and decided to write off – rose 18 percent to almost $961 million. Many individual credit card companies are reporting that serious delinquencies are up sharply. Discover Card reports that its accounts that are at least 30 days delinquent rose by more than 25,000 from November 2006 to November 2007 with 6,000 of that coming between October and November of this year.

Keep in mind that all of these figures come before the bulk of the holiday shopping season.

With interest rates that run as high as 36 percent, the credit card business reportedly is still lucrative. That’s why even people who already are carrying significant debt keep getting unsolicited credit card offers in the mail on a regular basis. It seems, however, that the skyrocketing level of account defaults may be causing even major credit card companies some concern.

Many Americans show a disturbing inability to properly handle their credit. With the memory of the Great Depression fading fast, credit cards have become a convenient and acceptable way for Americans to buy items for which they couldn’t pay cash. Being in debt no longer carries much stigma and many people simply don’t comprehend the consequences of allowing credit card debt to accumulate from month to month. In one annoying television commercial, for instance, a clueless man doesn’t seem to understand why his credit card debt has become so large even though “we paid more than the minimum each month.”

Credit card companies may still be prospering, but credit card debt can have a devastating effect on individuals and families. New laws have made it more difficult to declare bankruptcy and start over, and many people have run up debts that will be almost impossible to ever pay off.

If you’re facing a holiday debt hangover, there’s still time to make a New Year’s resolution to get the situation under control. Credit counseling services can offer help with paying off debts and managing money better. We hope all our local retailers had a profitable holiday season, but we also hope that those who made the purchases won’t be overwhelmed when the credit card bills arrive.