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USPS delivers no regular mail on federal holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day mean closed post offices and no carrier visit. Canada Post skips national holidays the same way. The main exceptions are Sunday parcel delivery and private couriers, which set their own schedules, so packages can still move on days letter mail rests.
In the US, the postal holidays follow the federal calendar: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. On these days, post offices close, blue collection boxes are not emptied, and no regular mail is delivered. Canada Post observes its own set of national holidays with the same effect: no delivery, closed retail outlets.
When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the observed day shifts, usually to Monday, and mail stops then instead. That is why you sometimes see no mail on a Monday that is not technically the holiday.
Normal mail day. Black Friday is not a federal holiday, so USPS runs its regular routes and post offices are open. It is, however, one of the heaviest mailing days of the year, which means longer lines at the counter and fuller collection boxes. If you are mailing holiday cards, do it before the Thanksgiving week rush, not during it.
No, and this confuses people every year. Christmas Eve is not a federal holiday, so mail is delivered and most post offices are open, often with reduced hours. The same goes for New Year's Eve. The full stop comes on Christmas Day and New Year's Day themselves. If a president declares Christmas Eve a federal holiday in a given year, which has happened, post offices close: but that is the exception, not the rule.
Sometimes, which is where the confusion comes from. USPS delivers parcels on Sundays in many areas, including Amazon packages, so a Sunday that is not a holiday can still bring a delivery to your door. Private couriers like UPS and FedEx set their own holiday schedules and may deliver on days USPS does not. But letter mail and regular parcels already inside the postal system simply wait: nothing is sorted or transported on the holiday itself, which adds a day to anything in transit.
Mail time-sensitive letters at least a few business days before a holiday, and assume anything dropped in a collection box on the holiday itself will not move until the next business day. For Christmas cards and gifts, work backward from the published holiday mailing deadlines rather than from Christmas itself. And if a deadline matters, certified or registered mail gives you a documented record of when the piece entered the system, which is more useful than guessing.
| Day | USPS | Canada Post | Private couriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day | No delivery, offices closed | No delivery, outlets closed | Own schedules; usually closed or limited |
| Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve | Normal delivery, often reduced office hours | Generally normal service | Normal or reduced service |
| Day after Thanksgiving | Normal mail day, very busy | Normal business day | Normal service |
| Regular Sundays | No letter mail; parcels delivered in many areas | Generally no delivery | Own schedules |
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