The last few weeks have been spent shopping for Christmas presents and now shipping deadlines are nearing if you hope for your presents to reach their recipients in time.

The United States Postal Service is expecting to ship 15 billion pieces of mail between Thanksgiving and New Years including 850 million packages.

In order to make sure your contribution to that total arrives in time, the Post Office has set suggested ship-by dates for the holiday season.

Packages being sent by standard USPS retail ground must be sent no later than Dec. 14 to guarantee they arrive by Christmas. First-class mail packages must be sent by Dec. 19, Priority Mail by Dec. 20 and Priority Mail Express by Dec. 22.

The deadline for APO/FPO/DPO Priority Mail and APO/FPO First-class mail being sent to military oversees is Dec. 11 and the APO/FPO/DPO Priority Mail Express deadline is Dec. 16.

Matt Lee with the Vicksburg Post Office said the week of Dec. 18-24 is the busiest week of the year for the postal service.

UPS and FedEx have also set ship-by dates for the holiday season centered around packages arriving by Dec. 22 as they don’t deliver on Sundays.

The deadline for both services’ ground shipping to arrive by Dec. 22 is Dec. 15. UPS’s ship-by date for 3 day select is Dec. 18, while FedEx has a Dec. 19 ship-by date for its Express Saver service.

UPS and FedEx’s deadline for 2-day shipping is Dec. 20 and next day shipping is Dec. 21.

The post office in Vicksburg, 3415 Pemberton Square Blvd., will be open Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to noon. The UPS Store, 3412 Pemberton Square Blvd., will be open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.