WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WXPR) — With Thanksgiving now in the rearview, many Americans will turn their attention to the holiday gift-giving season and USPS officials want to make sure they don’t miss some important deadlines.
Spokesperson Sean Hargadon says the first one might be closer than you think, and that’s the deadline to get packages to those serving overseas with an APO, FPO, or DPO address. “your first deadline is December 4th for priority mail, first-class mail,” he said. “After that, every week there’s a new deadline. December 11, December 18 for those. So what we want people to do and if you have someone in the military and you’re sending something overseas get to the Post Office get the process started by December 4 so you can get it there on time.”
For those shipping mail domestically the first deadline is on December 20th for anyone mailing a package first-class. For those going Priority Mail, the deadline is December 22nd.
Hargadon also provided some tips to help get those packages to their destination in time to be under the tree December 24th. He says for starters, make sure your box is clean and doesn’t have any old addresses on it that could delay the process. “When you do the address, make sure you put it in capital letters, the name, where it’s going to, the address, the zip code. Zip Code is extremely important. Also, have a return address on the box.”
He adds that when you pack your box, make sure everything is tight using bubble wrap, packing peanuts, or crumpled-up newspaper.
The USPS estimates that over 15 billion pieces of mail and 900 million packages will be delivered between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.
