These are the United States Postal Service’s recommendations for timely holiday shipping inside the United States.

With a late Thanksgiving in the United States, it seems as if this will be a short holiday shopping season. In a unique quirk of the calendar, Hanukkah starts on December 25. As such, the Christmas shipping deadlines sent out by the U.S. Postal Service work for most people this year.

For shipping inside the United States, the post office is recommending the following deadlines to get packages in the mail:

Dec. 18 for USPS Ground Advantage Service (formerly known as First-Class Mail)

Dec. 19 for USPS Priority Mail

Dec. 21 for USPS Priority Mail Express

For shipping outside the United States…oh, boy. To the best of my knowledge as of this posting, the Canadian postal service is on strike. As such, Canadian customers will need to use the much more expensive FedEx until the strike ends. Other international customers will need to allow time for their national customs offices to admit new packages. Technically, USPS Priority International is supposed to arrive in 6 to 10 days…but customs offices will take at least a couple of days. As we can’t guarantee how long any of it will take through international systems, the sooner you order the better. We would guess the latest buyers outside the U.S. using the USPS would have a realistic chance of getting something in time for Christmas or Hanukkah would be Dec. 10. FedEx can guarantee faster delivery later in the month, but it will likely cost more than $100.