Last posting dates for Christmas cards and parcels in the UK

Royal Mail sets new last posting dates for Christmas every year. At the start of October 2026 its Christmas pages still showed the 2025 list and said the UK dates would be updated ready for Christmas 2026. This guide gives the 2025 dates with the number of days each one fell before Christmas Day, our safe posting targets for 2026, when Christmas Day is a Friday, and the overseas and British Forces deadlines.

Christmas last posting dates in 2025: the Royal Mail list

These are the last recommended posting dates Royal Mail published for Christmas 2025, for delivery to UK addresses before 25 December. The last column is the figure to carry over to 2026: how many days before Christmas Day each deadline fell.

Royal Mail also set Friday 19 December as the last date for a Tracked Returns 48 parcel to get back to its sender before Christmas. The 2025 list carried a warning that the dates were correct when published and could change.

Couriers sold at Post Office counters

The Post Office published its own 2025 list, which adds the couriers it sells alongside Royal Mail:

• Evri Standard Tracked: Friday 19 December. Evri Next Day Tracked: Monday 22 December.
• DPD Next Day: Monday 22 December for most postcodes, Saturday 20 December for much of the Highlands (IV1 to IV62, for example) and Wednesday 17 December for remote areas such as the Outer Hebrides (HS1 to HS9) and Orkney (KW15 to KW17).
• DPD Gold: Tuesday 23 December.

Christmas 2026: what changes this year

Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday, so Christmas Eve is a Thursday and the last weekend before Christmas falls on 19 and 20 December. Boxing Day is a Saturday, and its bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December.

2nd class letters are moving to every other weekday

Under reforms Ofcom announced in July 2025, Royal Mail is moving 2nd class letters to delivery every other weekday, Monday to Friday, with no Saturday round. It is rolling the change out in phases across about 1,200 delivery offices and expects to finish by December 2026. 1st class letters are still delivered six days a week, Monday to Saturday, and parcels, 2nd class ones included, are not affected: Royal Mail delivers them up to seven days a week. New targets apply from 1 April 2026: 90% of 1st class mail should arrive the next day and 95% of 2nd class within three weekdays.

For Christmas cards this matters at the end of the week. Royal Mail’s own table gives a 2nd class letter posted on a Monday a due day of Thursday, and one posted on a Tuesday a due day of Friday. A Wednesday posting is due the following Monday, a Thursday posting the following Tuesday and a Friday posting the following Wednesday, so post 2nd class batches on a Monday or a Tuesday.

Our safe posting targets for 2026

Royal Mail’s 2024 and 2025 deadlines sat at almost the same distance from Christmas Day. For each service we took the longer of the two gaps, added at least one day, and moved any target that landed on a Sunday to the Saturday before. These are our targets, not Royal Mail’s dates: when the official 2026 list comes out, follow it wherever it is earlier.

International Christmas posting dates

For Christmas 2025, Royal Mail’s posting dates page for personal customers gave no country-by-country list of international deadlines. It pointed senders to the delivery aims in its country guides and asked them to post as early as possible. Its 2024 list is still a useful guide to how much time overseas mail needs at Christmas.

Tracked and signed services bought a few more days in 2024, from Saturday 7 December for Australia to Monday 16 December for France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. For 2026, our safe target is to post airmail cards to any country by Monday 30 November, 25 days before Christmas Day.

Royal Mail delivery aims abroad

Royal Mail publishes the normal delivery aim of each international service, destination by destination, in its country guides. In December, go by the Christmas deadlines rather than those everyday aims: in 2024 the airmail cut-off for Australia came 22 days before Christmas Day.

International Economy has the earliest deadlines

International Economy had the earliest Christmas deadlines on Royal Mail’s 2024 list: Wednesday 9 October for most destinations outside Europe, Monday 21 October for Hong Kong, the Middle and Far East, Singapore and South Africa, Wednesday 6 November for Canada and the USA, and Monday 2 December for Europe. If you plan to send presents abroad this way, check Royal Mail’s Christmas page for the 2026 dates as soon as they appear.

British Forces (BFPO) posting dates

Mail to forces addresses has to leave weeks before the UK deadlines. For Christmas 2025, Royal Mail’s dates were Monday 17 November for operations and HM Ships, and Monday 24 November for static firm bases and Permanent Joint Operating Bases. Mail from BFPO addresses back to the UK had until 17 December.

Both 2025 forces dates came ten days earlier than in 2024 (27 November and 4 December). For 2026 we suggest posting to any BFPO address by mid-November.

Days Royal Mail does not deliver over Christmas

Royal Mail’s 2026 holiday list, on its service updates page, shows no collections or deliveries on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or the substitute Boxing Day bank holiday. It made no collections or deliveries on New Year’s Day 2026 either, or in Scotland on 2 January, but its 2027 dates were not listed in early October 2026. Here is how the holidays fall this time:

Check the stamp before the deadline

A card posted on time can still go wrong if the stamp does not match it. Royal Mail prices letters by size as well as weight, and a Large Letter costs more than a Letter.

Royal Mail’s size guide lists greetings cards under the Letter format and only some large greetings cards under Large Letter: a card stays a Letter while its envelope is no bigger than 240 × 165 mm, no thicker than 5 mm and no heavier than 100 g. A badge, a button or a chunky bow can take it past 5 mm, which makes it a Large Letter, a common catch with handmade Christmas cards. Put the stamp in the top right-hand corner, write each part of the address, postcode included, on its own line and add a return address on the back so an undelivered card can come home.

If the cards are bought but still blank, our guide to what to write in a Christmas card has wording for family, friends and colleagues. The cards below come from our gift wrapping and cards range.

Peter Pauper Press

English robin Christmas cards, 20 with glitter and keepsake box

★★★★★★★★★★ (885)

£7.70 View on Amazon

Amazon’s Choice

Just Cards Direct cards & gifts

Pack of 10 red candle Christmas cards with white envelopes, 14 cm

★★★★★★★★★★ (744)

£6.99 View on Amazon

Absolutely Yours

Pack of 24 charity Christmas cards, 4 winter designs, 15 x 15 cm

★★★★★★★★★★ (723)

£5.99 View on Amazon

Peter Pauper Press

Tidings of Joy boxed Christmas cards, 20 with silver foil

★★★★★★★★★★ (710)

£13.99 View on Amazon

See the full Christmas Cards collection (30)

A posting plan for parcels

• Wrap the presents before you pack them, then fill any empty space in the box so nothing can move. Our guide on how to wrap a present covers awkward shapes.
• Weigh and measure each parcel at home, so you can buy the postage online and drop it off instead of queuing to pay at the counter.
• Send anything that must arrive by a set day with a tracked service, and keep the receipt until it has been delivered.
• For presents you will hand over in person, wrapping paper, gift bags and boxes are in the Christmas wrapping range.