There are two types of people in the world. Those who wait until the last minute to finish their holiday shopping and those who don’t.
While some people start shopping for Christmas pretty much the day after Christmas, many of us fall into the second category, and there can be several reasons for that. You may not want to store gifts in your house for an extended period of time. You may not be sure what to buy everyone, so you’d want to make sure they’re able to exchange it if necessary. In that case, you wouldn’t want to buy too far out so that the gift receipt would still be valid.
For many people, waiting until the last minute to shop for the holidays is just procrastination. It seems like there’s time, until there isn’t. If you like to shop online or if you’ll be sending gifts to friends or family who live out of town, you really don’t have time to wait until Christmas Eve.
If fact, if you want to make sure your presents arrive by Christmas Day, you might have already missed the shipping deadline.
The deadlines to make sure your package will arrive on time when you use the United States Postal Service (this includes Christmas cards) is as follows:
USPS retail ground: December 14th
USPS first-class mail: December 20th
Priority mail: December 20th
Priority mail express: December 22nd
If you haven’t already, take those holiday cards to the post office stat!
If you have a package you want to mail and you’re planning on using UPS or FedEx, their shipping deadlines for guaranteed delivery by Christmas Day are coming up fast too.
UPS 3-day select packages needed to be dropped off on December 18th.
UPS 2nd-day air packages need to be dropped off by December 20th in order to be delivered on Christmas Eve.
UPS next-day air packages need to be dropped off by December 21st for delivery on Christmas Eve.
In some locations with Saturday hours, 2nd-day air and next-day air packages might be able to be delivered on Christmas Eve if they’re dropped off on December 22nd.
FedEx Ground® and FedEx Home Delivery® packages needed to be in the mail on December 17th.
FedEx Express Saver® packages need to be dropped off no later than the 19th.
FedEx 2Day® and FedEx 2Day® A.M. packages need to be dropped off by December 20th.
FedEx Standard Overnight®, FedEx Priority Overnight®, and FedEx First Overnight® packages all need to be dropped off by December 21st.
If you’re a true procrastinator, FedEx SameDay®, FedEx SameDay® City Priority, and FedEx SameDay® City Direct packages can be sent, yes, the same day. So, if it’s Christmas Day and you haven’t sent that package yet, you might still have a chance.
If you’re more of the online shopping type, Amazon’s shipping deadlines are coming up fast too. In fact, unless you’re a Prime member, you’ve already missed the deadline for guaranteed delivery by Christmas Day, which was December 17th.
For Prime members (start that free trial now if you missed the December 17th cut-off), items eligible for 2-day Prime shipping need to be ordered by December 22nd, while items eligible for 1-day Prime shipping need to be ordered by December 23rd, and items eligible for same day Prime shipping need to be ordered by December 24th.
For more information about the upcoming Christmas shipping deadlines, watch this video.
Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?