NATIONWIDE — The U.S. Postal Service expects to deliver nearly 15 billion pieces of mail and 900 million packages this holiday season. 

They say the busiest time of the year is two weeks before Christmas. Starting the week of December 10, customer traffic is expected to increase, and USPS expects to deliver nearly 200 million packages per week during these two weeks. 

The week of December 17 - 23 is predicted to be the busiest mailing, shipping, and delivery week with nearly 3 billion pieces for first-class mail, including greeting cards, to be processed and delivered. 

USPS has also expanded their Sunday delivery operations to locations with high package volumes. They anticipate delivering more than 8 million packages on Sundays this December. 

USPS also allows consumers to ship their packages from home. They anticipate December 17 to be the busiest day online with more than 8 million consumers predicted to visit usps.com for help shipping holiday gifts. USPS also anticipates nearly 400,000 consumers will use the Click-N-Ship feature and other online service on December 17 to order free Priority Mail boxes, print shipping labels, purchase postage, and request free next-day Package Pickup. 

Here are the 2018 Holiday Shipping Deadlines:

Dec. 4 — APO/FPO/DPo (ZIP Code 093 only) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail

Dec. 11 — APO/FPO/DPO (all other ZIP Codes) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail

Dec. 14 — USPS Retail Ground

Dec. 18 — APO/FPO/DPO (expect ZIP Code 093) USPS Priority Mail Express

Dec. 20 — First-Class Mail (including greeting cards

Dec. 20 — First-Class packages (up to 15.99 ounces)

Dec. 20 — Hawaii to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail

Dec. 20 — Priority Mail

Dec. 20 — Alaska to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail

Dec. 22 — Alaska to mainland Priority Mail Express

Dec. 22 — Hawaii to mainland Priority Mail Express

Dec. 22 — Priority Mail Express