Want to pay ground rates to ship holiday gifts? Today is USPS and FedEx deadline
Want to get your holiday gifts to their destination by December 25 and pay the standard ground shipping rates? Better do it today, because December 15 is the deadline for both FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service.
This is the USPS's busiest week of the season, according to a recent statement from the postal service. Roughly 2.3 billion packages, greeting cards and other pieces of mail will be delivered this week alone, the USPS said.
That's a big hunk of the more than 12 billion letters, cards and packages the postal service expects to deliver between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.
"Now is the time to mail your holiday greetings and packages to make sure they reach their intended destination in time for holiday gatherings and celebrations," Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in the statement.
Here are the deadlines to get your gifts shipped in time for the December 25 holiday for the USPS as well and FedEx and UPS.
USPS
Continental U.S.:
- December 15: USPS retail ground service
- December 17: First-class mail service (including holiday greeting cards)
- December 17: First-class packages (up to 16 ounces)
- December 18: Priority mail service
- December 23: Priority mail express service
USPS For Air/Army/Fleet/Diplomatic post office addresses (except Zip Code 093):
- December 16: Priority mail express military service
USPS Alaska and Hawaii:
- December 17: Hawaii to/from mainland — priority mail and first-class mail
- December 18: Alaska to/from Continental U.S. — first-class and priority mail
- December 21: Alaska to/from Continental U.S. and Hawaii to/from mainland — priority mail express
FedEx
- December 15: ground and home delivery
- December 21: express saver
- December 22: two day and two-day a.m.
- December 23: overnight services
- December 24: same day