Holiday shipping deadlines for 2026 and the order-by date to show customers.

For expected delivery before December 25 this year, USPS recommends sending by Thursday, December 17, 2026 for USPS Ground Advantage and First-Class Mail, Friday, December 18 for Priority Mail and Saturday, December 19 for Priority Mail Express in the lower 48 states (checked November 2026). Those are dates for handing the parcel to USPS. The order-by date on your store is earlier, because your warehouse's cutoff and its peak SLA come off first.

This guide has the USPS dates by service and destination, says plainly which carriers' dates we couldn't confirm, and then walks through the arithmetic from a carrier's date to the date you show customers.

USPS send-by dates for delivery before December 25, 2026

The table below is USPS's 2026 holiday shipping deadlines page, service by service, as it read when we checked in November 2026. USPS heads each of its tables "recommended send-by dates for expected delivery before December 25", so we've kept the word recommended. If your standard shipping option is Ground Advantage, the first row is the one your order-by date starts from.

Two rows need a note. For Ground Advantage to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US territories, USPS gives no single date. Its page says Ground Advantage packages between the contiguous United States and Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the territories it names have a service expectation of 10 days or more, that the days vary with the distance, and that packages to or from offshore ZIP Codes may see longer transit times (checked November 2026). It sends you to the service commitments lookup, which asks for the ZIP Code you're mailing from, the ZIP Code you're mailing to, and the date and time you plan to mail (checked November 2026).

One military mail date has already passed. USPS's Ground Advantage date for the APO, FPO and DPO ZIP Codes it lists was Wednesday, November 4, and its Priority Mail Express Military Service date is Wednesday, December 16 where the table offers that service, with one ZIP range marked N/A (checked November 2026). The same page notes that Hanukkah (December 4 to December 12) is earlier this year and asks senders to adjust. Every date in its tables is for delivery before December 25.

UPS and FedEx: no dates here, and where to get them

UPS and FedEx each publish a holiday schedule on their own sites. Neither page would open for us when we checked on November 14, so we're giving no date for either carrier. Be wary of round-ups that list them. A date that's off by one day on a blog becomes a promise on your product page.

If you ship with UPS or FedEx, open the carrier's own holiday page for 2026 and read the row for the service you use. A ground deadline can depend on how many transit days separate the warehouse from the customer, so one date may not cover your whole customer base. Ask your 3PL which service your standard shipping option maps to and how many transit days it takes from the warehouse to your farthest customers. Our peak season planHow to plan peak season with your 3PL, from eight weeks out to January.A peak season plan with your 3PL, from the forecast eight weeks out to the January returns wave: inbound, packaging, carrier ship-by dates and surcharges. carries the FedEx dates as that guide read them in October, with its own check date, so read them against FedEx's page before you use them.

What a recommended send-by date does and doesn't tell you

A send-by date is the carrier's estimate of the last day a parcel can enter its network and still arrive in time. It covers the carrier's leg and says nothing about how long your order sat in the warehouse before that.

USPS says as much on the page. Its note under the tables reads that the actual delivery date may vary and is based on origin, destination, Post Office acceptance time and other conditions (checked November 2026). Acceptance time matters to you, because a parcel packed on Thursday afternoon that misses the carrier's pickup is accepted on Friday.

So treat the carrier's date as the outer edge. Carriers can change these pages during the season, which is why every date above carries the day we read it. Check the page again before you print a date on a banner, and once more in the first week of December.

How to work out the order-by date for your store

The order-by date is the carrier's send-by date with your warehouse's time taken off. You need two things from your 3PL before you start: the cutoff, which is the time of day an order has to arrive to ship that day, and the peak SLA, which is how many business days an order that misses the cutoff can wait in December. Our guide to 3PL SLAs and cutoffs3PL SLAs and cutoffs: what to measure and what a miss costs.A cutoff is the time an order must arrive to ship that day. The SLA is how many business days later orders get. Measure both by the first carrier scan. explains both terms and how to measure them.

1. 01Find the service behind your standard shipping option. It's the service the warehouse buys the label on, which may differ from the name your checkout shows.
2. 02Read that service's send-by date on the carrier's own 2026 holiday page, for the place most of your orders go. Write down the date and the day you read it.
3. 03Ask your 3PL for its cutoff time and its peak SLA in business days, and whether it ships on Saturdays in December. A Saturday send-by date only helps if a truck leaves the building that day.
4. 04Count back from the carrier's date by the peak SLA, in business days. The day you land on is the last day an order can arrive and still reach the carrier in time if the warehouse uses its whole SLA.
5. 05Take one more business day off. Weather, a missed pickup or a stockout on one line of the order can each cost a day, and you can't plan which.
6. 06Do the same for every other option at checkout. An expedited option has a later send-by date, so it gets a later order-by date.
7. 07Do it again for destinations with dates of their own, such as Alaska, Hawaii and international orders.
8. 08Write each date with a time and a time zone, and put a reminder in your calendar to change the banner the morning after it passes.

Say your standard option ships USPS Ground Advantage to the lower 48 and your 3PL's peak SLA is three business days. The USPS date is Thursday, December 17. Three business days back is Monday, December 14, so an order placed that Monday still fits if the warehouse takes all three days. Take one business day off and the date you show is Friday, December 11.

Say you also offer Priority Mail at checkout. Its date is Friday, December 18, so the same count gives Tuesday, December 15, and Monday, December 14 with the day off. You now have two honest lines for the product page: one for standard shipping and one for the faster option.

The cutoff decides what happens on the last day itself. An order that arrives before the cutoff ships that day, so some orders placed after your published date will still make it. Don't advertise that. The published date should be the one that holds when the warehouse uses its whole SLA.

Where to show the date, and what to say after it passes

Put the order-by date where a customer decides: on the product page, in the cart and at checkout, next to the shipping options. Say what it means in one line, for example that orders placed by the date ship in time for the carrier's recommended date for delivery before December 25. Don't write that the parcel will arrive by Christmas. The carrier's date is a recommendation, so yours can't be more than one.

Plan the message for each stage before the season starts, because nobody writes good copy on December 16.

• Before the standard date: the order-by date for standard shipping, with the time and the time zone.
• After the standard date and before the expedited date: standard shipping may now arrive after December 25, and the faster option is still in time if ordered by its own date.
• After the last expedited date: orders placed now are expected after December 25. Say so on the product page and offer a gift card.
• In the order confirmation email at every stage: which option the customer chose and when the order will leave the warehouse.
• On your own calendar: the day each banner changes, and who changes it.

The peak season planHow to plan peak season with your 3PL, from eight weeks out to January.A peak season plan with your 3PL, from the forecast eight weeks out to the January returns wave: inbound, packaging, carrier ship-by dates and surcharges. covers the rest of the season, from the forecast to the January returns, and the BFCM prep checklistHow to get your stock, your store and your 3PL ready for Black Friday.Black Friday prep in five jobs: reorder alerts, inbound, carrier send-by dates, marketplace dispatch clocks and return rules, with the tool for each one. covers the sale weekend itself.

The cutoff and the peak SLA at YNK

These are the two numbers you'd use in the count above if we ship your orders. Orders in by noon Eastern (12pm ET) ship the same business day. Anything later goes out the next business day, or within two to three business days during peak. In peak the cutoff stays at noon.

Every major carrier picks up from our warehouse in Elmwood Park daily. The office and the receiving dock are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm ET, and weekend and holiday shipping depends on the SLA in your agreement, case by case. Ground reaches New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England and the DC area in one to two business days and the rest of the country in about five. Your handling and storage rates don't change in peak, and there are no seasonal or peak surcharges on handling or storage. The 3PL pageThe 3PLWhat the 3PL does, how switching works, and where orders ship from. has the rest, and the FAQ on shipping and carriersFAQ: Shipping and carriers6 questions, answered in the first sentence. answers the questions about pickups and weekends.

To get a quote, send us the 3PL intake. It takes about ten minutes. Someone from the team replies within one business day, and the proposal follows within five.

Questions brands ask about holiday shipping deadlines