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This holiday season the post office is there when you're ready to ship
Canada Post offers a variety of mailing deadlines to ensure holiday deliveries arrive on time

Nov. 14, 2008

Ottawa - No matter where or when you need to get those special cards, gifts and packages delivered during the holiday season, Canada Post has a fast and reliable solution for you.

With delivery deadlines as late as December 23 (within Canada), December 22 (U.S.-bound packages) and December 17, 18 and 19 (international destinations), getting it there before Santa arrives is easy! Below is a comprehensive summary of everything you need to know to ensure that your holiday packages arrive in time for all your holiday celebrations.

International Letters and Parcels…

 Letter-postAir ParcelXpresspostTMPriorityTM Worldwide
AfricaDec 1Dec 1Dec 10Dec 17
AsiaDec 8Dec 8Dec 10Dec 18
AustraliaDec 8-Dec 10Dec 17
CaribbeanDec 8Dec 8Dec 10Dec 18
Central/South AmericaDec 1Dec 1Dec 10Dec 18
EuropeDec 8Dec 8Dec 12Dec 19
Middle EastDec 8Dec 8Dec 10Dec 18
New ZealandDec 8-Dec 10Dec 17
U.S.Dec 15-Dec 15Dec 22

Cards, letters and parcels for delivery within Canada should be mailed by the dates listed in the charts below.

Cards and letters…

Local DeliveryWithin my provinceOutside my province
Dec 19Dec 18Dec 17

Holiday Parcels…

Regular ParcelTMXpresspostTMPriority Courier™
Dec 12Dec 22Dec 23

Visit www.canadapost.ca/mailingdates for information on different services and options, tips on proper packaging and other important holiday information.


HOLIDAY MAILING FACTS
December is a very busy time of the year for Canada Post. It's all about Sending Joy and keeping the magic of the holiday alive... During the 2007 holiday period, Canada Post...

  • helped Santa reply to more than 1.2 million letters (up 14% from 2006), and 45,000 emails (up 2.5% from 2006), from children everywhere!
  • processed more than 923 million pieces of mail, almost 2 million more than 2006!
  • we experienced our busiest day on December 13, processing 41 million pieces of mail!
  • delivered more than 500,000 pieces of mail the weekend before Christmas!
  • handled more than 5 million online package tracking requests
  • provided more than 7 million postal code look-ups on canadapost.ca/postalcode
  • sold more than 70 million Christmas stamps!

 

HOLIDAY MAILING HABITS
A telephone survey, conducted by Harris/Decima, with a sample of the Canadian population (1218 participants, weighted to reflect the known Canadian population statistics, margin of error of +/-2.8% for a random sample of 1218) between October 9 and 12, 2008, looked at holiday mailing habits and intentions...

  • on average, Canadians plan to send 15 greeting cards through the mail during the upcoming holiday season
  • 71% of Canadians prefer to receive greeting cards through the mail
  • 10% of Canadians plan to send more greeting cards than last year, while the majority (81%) plan to maintain their level from last year
  • Canadians only plan to send six holiday e-greetings
  • 59% of Canadians plan to send no holiday e-greetings
  • younger people (18-34 years) plan to send an average of 14 e-greetings each
  • 24% of Canadians choose to send e-greetings because it's faster and 10% admit that it's because of laziness
  • 65% of young adults (18-34) prefer receiving traditional greeting cards by mail but tend to send more e-greeting cards
  • 44% of Canadians send cards by mail because it's more personalized
  • on average, Canadians plan to send 2.3 packages/parcels during the upcoming holiday season