KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — After Thanksgiving, the holiday shopping season officially kicked into full gear. While many people are planning to shop inside of retail stores and at small businesses this year, many others are planning to buy gifts online.
Shoppers are also planning to send gifts to their families across the country, making postal services work harder. To make sure gifts are delivered safely and quickly, many postal services are looking to hire additional staff. However, they are still urging people to make sure letters and packages are in the mail by specific dates.
Gifts sent through the United States Postal Service should be sent by Dec. 17 if people want to take advantage of first-class mailing. Priority mail should be sent by Dec. 18 to get to its destination by Christmas. And anyone who wants to send mail through priority mail express should drop packages off by Dec. 23.
The last day for ground home delivery packages to arrive on time with FedEx is Dec. 15. However, people can send packages through 'Express Saver' by Dec. 21 to make sure they get to recipients by Christmas. There are also two-day overnight and same-day shipping options available.
Packages sent through UPS should be dropped by Dec. 20 for normal pickup and delivery services, officials said. Dec. 21 will also be the last day to send packages on time with UPS 3 Day Select.
UPS 2 Day Air packages should be sent by Dec. 22, and people sending packages on Dec. 23 can only expect them to arrive on time with UPS Next Day Air. To pick them up, people will also need UPS On-Call Pickup or UPS Smart Pickup services.