5 Tips to Ensure Your Christmas Gifts Arrive on Time

What is Christmas without presents? Thanks to online shopping, gift buying has become less time- and effort-consuming over the past years, but when it comes to buying Christmas presents for friends and family who live too far way to receive their gifts in person, it’s up to you to ensure their gifts arrive on time. Here are a few tips that will help you to plan your holiday shipping.

1. Do not put Christmas shopping off until the last minute. We understand that you may have a busy life, but putting Christmas shopping off until December is not a good idea if you want your friends and relatives to receive their gifts by Christmas morning. It is recommended to start shopping for Christmas presents around mid-November.

2. Check delivery cut-off dates. Most retailers and postal/courier companies announce their holiday delivery cut-off dates in advance to guarantee deliveries before Christmas. These holiday shipping deadlines can vary depending on the retailer or delivery company, type of service, and destination, so you should research them thoroughly to ensure timely delivery.

3. Print your shipping labels yourself. If you shop for Christmas presents at brick-and-mortar stores or have them delivered to your place first (for example, because you want to add a personal touch before shipping them to recipients), you can make the process more efficient by printing shipping labels yourself. This won’t make your packages arrive faster per se, but it will make the shipping process more efficient for a number of reasons.

First, shipping label printing services such as PostageMaker usually have a postage calculator that allows to compare different shipping carriers and services to choose the one with the best combination of speed and affordability.

Second, printing your shipping labels yourself gives you more control over the process. If you double-check everything before generating and printing your shipping labels, you can be 100% sure that all delivery details are correct and there are no typos or misspellings that can cause delivery delays or even result in the package being delivered to the wrong person or getting returned to the sender.

Third, when you print shipping labels yourself, you don’t have to waste time standing in line at the post office. All you need to do is pack your gifts, attach shipping labels, and leave the packages at the nearest drop-off location.

We should also mention that printing your shipping labels online can help you save a great deal of money on holiday shipping, because many shipping label services, including PostageMaker, offer shipping discounts.

4. When shipping internationally, check local customs rules and regulations. If you want to send Christmas presents to friends and family living abroad, you should check customs rules and regulations of the destination country to avoid delays or issues at customs.

Gifts are typically exempt from duties and taxes, but there are strict criteria for what counts as a gift: the sender and the recipient must be private individuals, the word “gift” must be clearly stated on the customs declarations, all goods in the package must be itemized on the customs declaration, the value of the gift must not exceed a certain amount, items must be intended for personal use, etc.

So if you want the addressee to receive your gift without any problems and on time, you need to make sure that all shipping documentation is in order. When you generate international shipping labels online with PostageMaker, the shipping label doubles as a customs form, so you kill two birds with one stone.

5. Don’t reuse old boxes when you ship presents. While it is generally possible to reuse old boxes for shipping, as long as they’re in good condition and don’t have any old labels or markings, we recommend against it when it comes to shipping gifts. First of all, why on earth would you ship a Christmas gift in an old box? Second, an old box is more likely to get damaged en route, which can cause shipping delays.