Holiday shipping deadlines approaching

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - The clock is ticking to get those gifts shipped to your family and friends on time for Christmas.

If you go with the post office, this Saturday is the deadline for using their ground delivery.

The FedEx ground deadline has passed, it was Wednesday.

UPS recommends you get an estimate from their website and it will likely cost you.

Shippers said the cost to make sure presents arrive on time is worth it.

Gary Remensnyder of Lansing stopped by the UPS store in Lansing Thursday. Remensnyder said he’s shipping his daughter a gift for the holidays. “It’s a blouse to my daughter on the west coast.”

Remensnyder said he hasn’t seen her for Christmas in five years and he wants the gift to get there before the holidays.

”I use UPS because it’s already stored in their computer and they get it there pretty quick,” he said.

Remensnyder said he knows that there’s a high cost to getting the package there on time, but he said it’s all worth it.

“28$ worse for one box but it’s Christmas,” Remensnyder said. “It’s family, that’s what you do for family.”

Post offices and FedEx stores are also seeing lots of packages being shipped as the deadlines approach.

To save yourself some time at the post office you can package your gifts at home in either a white or brown cardboard box.

When W. Richard Hamlin went to the post office, he said he expected his gifts to cost close to $100, but he was pleasantly surprised when it cost less than he expected.

“I am shipping a whole bunch of Christmas cookies to my brother and two of my daughters and a whole bunch of other Christmas gifts to them, one in Pennsylvania and one in New York,” Hamlin said. “$75.05 for five packages with insurance on two of them. So that’s not bad at all.”

Remensnyder and Hamlin and both hope to give their families something special in time for Christmas.

The United States Postal Service has a Youtube channel on topics like properly packing a box and addressing a package. A spokesperson said to make sure you do not wrap your package in holiday paper or brown shipping paper and no strings, ribbons or bows. If you want to wrap a present, put gifts in another box.

The post office recommends padded envelopes to make sure gift cards are protected and instead of sending cash presents consider cashier checks.

There are also cash apps and you can email gift cards to skip mailing altogether.

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