For many families, Christmas is the most expensive time of the year, and for the Villanova family, it’s no different.

While families might buy to satiate their children’s wishlists, the University’s recent holiday purchases bring to light its notorious habit of frivolous spending.

Louis DiCocco of the DiCocco Family’s St. Jude’s Shop, which has five locations in the area, said that the University spent a startling sum of $10,000 on the nativity scene on display in front of Dougherty Hall this month.

As a part of Merry Christmas Villanova Week, Dining Services has hired ice sculptors to shape five tons of ice with chainsaws in front of Dougherty tonight purely for the entertainment of the students.

And this time next year, students will be given the gift of premium cable, including the option of HBO, Showtime and TiVo.

The University is projected to spend over $1 million in a partnership with Comcast to upgrade the cable as well as Internet services in all dorms.

This $1 million will likely come out of students’ room and board fees.

A little holiday decorating on campus is no crime. It gets the community in the holiday spirit and distracts students from the impending stress of finals.

Activities that campus groups have already held, like gingerbread house making and pictures with Santa, are entirely sufficient to celebrate the holidays.

Giant ice sculptures and $10,000 nativity scenes are not. At least the nativity scene will remain there until Epiphany on Jan. 6; the ice sculpture charade will only last a few hours.

Hundreds of dollars will melt in Dougherty Plaza today.

Students do not need the school to spend $1 million on more TV channels. They need the school to spend 1 million dollars renovating Dougherty Hall and places that are in obvious need of repair.

They need the school to spend money on worthwhile events that will contribute toward the University experience and things that are in accordance with its motto and values.

In addition, our Catholic heritage is of utmost importance to the University and the crèche is a beautiful representation of this, but a much less expensive one could have been just as sufficient and poignant.

Ten thousand dollars is simply too much to spend, especially when the cost of tuition is expected to increase significantly next year, when we are one of the most expensive schools in the nation already.

Our tuition should go toward improving financial aid packages, on-campus housing, facilities, health services, faculty salary, research and the like, not financing a Christmas circus in and around Dougherty.