Predicting More Than 850 Million Packages, USPS Encourages Sending Presents Early This Holiday Season

Meghan Overdeep
·1 min read

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is encouraging Americans not to procrastinate sending gifts to loved ones ahead of what is shaping up to be another huge holiday season for the mail service.

USPS is expecting to deliver more mail and packages to homes than any other shipper during the 2021 holiday season. According to a news release, USPS anticipates delivering between 850 million and 950 million packages over the holidays. All told, they expect to process and deliver more than 12 billion letters, cards, and packages between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

The announcement comes on the heels of 2020's "record-breaking" holiday season, during which USPS processed and delivered 13 billion letters, cards, and packages "under some of the most difficult circumstances we've faced in the past century."

In preparation for the upcoming shipping boom, USPS has announced that it will expand Sunday delivery, beginning November 28, to locations with high package volumes.

"USPS already delivers packages on Sundays in most major cities and expects to deliver more than 9.7 million packages each Sunday throughout the holiday season," a news release notes.

Mail carriers will also deliver packages for an additional fee on Christmas Day in select locations.

The busiest time of the year for USPS reportedly begins two weeks before Christmas. Customer traffic at Post Office locations is expected to steadily increase beginning the week of December 6, with the week of December 13-18 being the busiest for mailing, shipping, and delivery.

Get those packages in the mail ASAP, folks!