LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While Santa has his red sleigh and flying reindeer to get him around the world, the rest of us must rely on a series of shipping services to make our holiday wishes come true.
This means it's time to finalize your holiday shopping lists and get them to their destinations.
However, you don't have long to wrap and send everything off. There is only so much any service can do (without the aid of antlered helpers).
If you wait too long your Christmas wishes will still get to their destinations, but most likely after the holiday.
Here are the deadlines for each major shipping service.
USPS:
They say the earlier you send the better. Remember: "Don't delay, mail and ship today." These dates are for is you want your gifts to arrive on Christmas Day.
For the contiguous U.S. (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), the earliest date is Dec. 18 for USPS Ground Advantage. This is one of the most affordable and reliable ways to send packages inside the U.S.
The deadline for First-Class mail is also Dec. 18. Priority mail is Dec. 19 and Priority Mail Express is Dec. 21.
You can find out more about your shipping options on the USPS website.
FedEx:
FedEx lists deadlines for if you want your package to arrive by Christmas Eve.
For Ground Economy the latest you should ship is Dec. 13. For Home Delivery and Ground delivery the deadline is Dec. 17 for five-day shipping and Dec. 18 for four-day shipping.
There is also same day shipping available up until Dec. 24.
You can look into more deadlines on their 2024 holiday shipping deadlines PDF.
UPS:
UPS lists deadlines for if you want you package to be delivered by Dec. 24.
For UPS ground, they provide customers with an online calculator tool to help you make plans for when you need to ship your package.
For three-day shipping the deadline is Dec. 19.
They say Dec. 20 is the last day to ship UPS 2nd Day Air packages for delivery on Christmas Eve. UPS 3 day select packages picked up on Dec. 20 will be scheduled to deliver on Friday, Dec. 27.
From Nov. 18, 2024 – Jan. 10, 2025, a limited number of UPS Ground and UPS Standard packages will require additional time in transit. The most up-to-date transit time details will be available using their calculator tool at the time of shipping.
You can find out more in their 2024 holiday shipping PDF.
Amazon:
Unlike the other shipping retailers, Amazon doesn't have a definitive list.
This is because of a number of factors but the biggest one is that unlike the other shipping services Amazon doesn't release a definitive list.
For Amazon Prime users, they can expect two-day or same day shipping depending on where you live.
The best estimate for the absolute latest deadline if you want to guarantee your packages make it to their destination in time is to order them between Dec. 17 and Dec. 22.
