Why is it that every year we ask ourselves these same questions:

How much time do I have until it's too late?

Can I wait one more day? I bet this item goes on sale tomorrow.

Shoot I forgot, can I ship it directly to their house, will that save any time?

The fact is we all do it and we all know the answer, if you wait to long it will not arrive before Christmas.  Luckily for us the major national carriers have give us advanced warning to let us know when the last day of shipping can be before it's too late.  In other words, if you ship after these days there is not telling if it will arrive before the big day.

Keep in mind these are suggested holiday shipping dates and not guarantees; with today's crazy pandemic anything is possible and yes, that means packages will be slower than normal. All ecommerce is up dramatically because of the major spike in online shopping, expect delays.

Here is your cheat sheet for the last online shopping/shipping days depending on which major carrier is shipping your item(s).

USPS

Dec. 15 — USPS Retail Ground Service
Dec. 18 — First-Class Mail Service
Dec. 19 — Priority Mail Service
Dec. 23 — Priority Mail Express Service

UPS

Dec. 15 — UPS Ground
Dec. 21 — UPS 3 Day Select
Dec. 22 — UPS 2nd Day Air
Dec. 23 — UPS Next Day Air

UPS is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. UPS Express Critical service is still available.

FedEx

Dec. 9 — FedEx SmartPost (certain exceptions may apply)
Dec. 15 — FexEx Ground and Home Delivery
Dec. 21 — FedEx Express Saver
Dec. 22 — FedEx 2 Day
Dec. 23 — FedEx Standard Overnight, Priority Overnight and First Overnight
Dec. 25 — FedEx SameDay, SameDay City Priority and SameDay City Direct

DHL Ecommerce

Dec. 11 — Ground
Dec. 15 — Expedited
Dec. 17 — Expedited Max

USPS International

Please click here for individual country and area dates

DHL Express has not published shipping cut-off times