AceShowbiz - Prison-bound Wesley Snipes will spend the upcoming holidays behind bars after a judge denied his request to delay his surrender date until the New Year. The "Blade" star and his lawyers have spent two years fighting his 2008 conviction, which found him guilty of failing to file returns or pay tax on earnings of $38 million, dating back to 1999.

He lost his appeal and his battle for a retrial and was recently ordered to turn himself in to Pennsylvania authorities by Thursday, December 9 to begin his three-year sentence for tax evasion. His attorney Daniel Meachum made a last-ditch attempt to postpone the surrender date last week by asking a federal judge in Florida to push back the start of Snipes' jail term until January 6.

The actor cited his "four minor children" for the postponement, claiming he didn't want to leave them "in the middle of the holiday season". But the judge rejected the motion because Snipes was handed the original punishment over two-and-a-half years ago, therefore giving him "all of that time to place his affairs in order", reports TMZ.com.

In documents detailing the ruling, the judge adds, "The sooner he begins his sentence, the sooner it will end."