2025 U.S. Shipping Deadlines
In order to keep your customer satisfaction high during the busiest time of the year, it’s crucial to communicate holiday shipping deadlines—the final dates to send a package for it to reach its destination by the holidays—to your customers.
Holiday shipping deadlines allow carriers to account for the higher shipping volume, ensuring orders are under the tree and into stockings on time. And with Thanksgiving falling on a later day this year, the holiday shopping window is shorter, so make sure you’re aware of these important dates before the busy season begins.
When do packages need to be mailed for Christmas delivery 2025?
Shipping deadlines will vary by the carrier and service, but most carrier deadlines range from six to 12 days before December 25th. It’s also important to note that domestic and international services each have their own set of shipping deadlines, so keep this in mind when preparing your holiday shipments. The domestic shipping deadlines for USPS, UPS, and FedEx can all be found below.
UPS®
- UPS 3 Day Select: December 19, 2025
- UPS 2nd Day AirⓇ services: December 22, 2025
- UPSⓇ Ground: Check ups.com/ctc (varies by origin/destination)
- UPSⓇ Ground Saver: Check ups.com/ctc (varies by origin/destination)
- UPS Next Day AirⓇ services: December 23, 2025
USPS®
In addition to these dates, the USPS announced that it will resume a temporary rate increase for some package services from October 5, 2025, to January 18, 2026. Surcharges are normal this time of year for all major carriers. This helps them handle the increased package volume during the holiday season and ensures they can maintain their service standards.
- USPS Ground Advantage™: December 17, 2025
- First-ClassⓇ Mail: December 17, 2025
- Priority MailⓇ: December 18, 2025
- Priority Mail ExpressⓇ: December 20, 2025
FedExⓇ
- FedEx Ground Economy: December 15, 2025
- FedEx GroundⓇ: See here
- FedEx Home Delivery: See here
- FedEx Express Saver: December 20, 2025
- Fedex 2DayⓇ & FedEx 2DayⓇ AM: December 22, 2025
- FedEx First OvernightⓇ, FedEx Priority OvernightⓇ, FedEx Standard OvernightⓇ, Extra Hours: December 23, 2025
- FedEx SameDayⓇ: December 24, 2025
USPS, UPS, and FedEx shipping holidays
Shipping holidays are designated days where postal workers, delivery drivers, and other people within this field are given time off and most or all services are suspended for the day. The shipping holidays for USPS, UPS, and FedEx are all outlined in the lists below.
USPS
- Thanksgiving Day: November 27, 2025
- Christmas Day: December 25, 2025
- New Year’s Day: January 1, 2026
A complete list of USPS shipping holidays can be found on the USPS website.
UPS
- Thanksgiving Day: November 27, 2025
- Christmas Day: December 25, 2025
- New Year’s Day: January 1, 2026
A complete list of UPS shipping holidays can be found on the UPS website.
FedEx
FedEx shipping holidays vary by service and by date throughout the holiday season. See here for Fedex’s complete list of shipping holidays by service.
Enjoy branded notifications
You’ve communicated shipping deadlines to your customers. How else can you continue to improve customer satisfaction during the busiest shipping season of the year? Stamps.com merchants can enable branded shipping notifications and branded tracking to provide customers with a personalized experience.
Branded ship notifications allow your business to customize emails with your logo, preferred color scheme, and more. Additionally, your business can add social media links and promo messages to give customers access to special deals.
Our branded options can be enabled and customized throughout the year, so you’re not limited to a single specific message. Create shipping notifications in advance and cross another item off your to-do list, all while keeping the holiday season merry and bright for your customers.
Make the holiday season simpler with a 30-day trial to Stamps.com.
