I’m hoping to spend a good amount of time this weekend working on my holiday cards, getting a jump on gift wrapping, and figuring out when I will mail packages to friends and family around the country, all to arrive safely before Christmas.  Thought it would be good to share with you the deadlines for arrival before Christmas Day:

Don’t forget about military deadlines!  The Holiday Mail for Heroes program requires cards to be received at their P.O. Box by December 6th. For other dates for military shipments or international destinations, check out this helpful website over at USPS.

A few “fun facts” from the USPS about mail volume in the holiday season:

• Busiest Mailing Day: Monday, December 16

• Busiest Delivery Day (cards and letters): Wednesday, December 18

• Busiest Delivery Day (packages): Thursday, December 19

• The Postal Service is projecting 14.7 billion cards will be delivered from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve and 13.1 billion cards, letters and packages will be delivered between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. (Holiday volume between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve for 2012 was 15.2 billion / 16.5 billion pieces in 2011).

• On AVERAGE, the Postal Service processes 528 million pieces of mail every day.

• During the HOLIDAY season, that volume increases to 545 million pieces of mail daily (560 million, 2012).

• The USPS expects to process about 607 million pieces of mail on December 16 (658 million, 2012). 

Source.