2023 Holiday Shipping Deadlines to Ensure Christmas Delivery in IN, IL & KY

The holidays are here and Christmas is fast approaching too. Make sure your packages can be delivered on time. Keep reading to learn the shipping deadlines for the three major parcel services.

Send Your Gifts

Whether it's a gift for your mom in your hometown, or a special toy for your favorite nephew a few states away, if you are sending a gift this holiday season, you want to be sure it arrives on time.

3 Options for Shipping Your Gifts

When it comes to holiday gift giving, we have 3 options for package shipping - USPS, FedEx, or UPS. If you're like me, you procrastinate on just about everything and that likely includes getting your packages shipped off for the holidays. So how much time do we have before it's too late for holiday delivery? Well, that depends on which carrier you choose and which holiday you're celebrating.

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USPS

According to the United States Postal Service, the clock is ticking for you to get your packages delivered by December 25th. For shipping within the contiguous United States, Saturday, December 16th is the deadline for USPS Retail Ground and First Class Mail service. If you ship via Priority service, you have until December 20th, and December 21st is the deadline to ship via Priority Mail Express Service.

UPS

There is still time for you to ship with the big brown too. You can get your packages to their destination with UPS by using normal shipping by Monday, December 18th. If you need to use UPS 3 Day Select by Tuesday, December 19th to ensure delivery by December 22nd. If you're cutting it closer than that, UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS Next Day Air are options with a deadline of December 20th and December 21st respectively. They won't be shipping or delivering anything on Christmas Day Eve, or Christmas Day as they will be closed.

FedEx

For FedEx, you have a few more options than you do with USPS and UPS. December 13th will be the deadline for FedEx Ground Economy. December 19th is the deadline for FedEx Express Saver and FedEx 3-Day Freight. Wednesday, December 20th is the deadline for all 2-Day shipping including 2-Day Freight. For other FedEx shipping option deadlines including 1-day and same-day Christmas Day shipping, the deadline is December 21st and 22nd.

Practice Patience

Unfortunately, even with these deadlines, there is still a chance that your packages may not make it on time so it may just be best to keep those great gifts for yourself. I'm kidding of course but I do think it's important to extend a bit more patience and understanding. If you happen to be reading this and you work for any of these 3 delivery services, thank you!