If you purchased gifts for out-of-town loved ones during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it isn't too early to plan shipping. Good packaging is needed so your gifts survive the journey. You also need a reliable shipper.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced it would offer holiday delivery seven days a week in major cities, including Sundays and Christmas Day, reports Fortune magazine.

This holiday season, USPS is estimating the number of packages it handles to range between 450-470 million packages, up 12 percent from last year's holiday season, according to Fortune.

The postal service has a holiday planner that provides customers with information about domestic, international and military mail-by deadlines for packages to arrive in time for the holiday, and package tracking.

USPS recommends that you ship by these deadlines so that holiday mail and packages arrive by Christmas:

  • Dec. 2 - First-Class Mail International/Priority Mail International
  • Dec. 10 - Priority Mail Express International
  • Dec. 15 - Standard Post
  • Dec. 17 - Global Express Guaranteed
  • Dec. 20 - First-Class Mail/Priority Mail (domestic)
  • Dec. 23 - Priority Mail Express (domestic)

You can also take advantage of free holiday boxes to use for packing your gifts. Some USPS customers may qualify for free package pick up.

Last year, UPS, the world's largest package delivery service, was overwhelmed by the unexpected volume of holiday packages and failed to deliver thousands of gifts by Christmas day. This holiday season, UPS has doubled the number of seasonal workers.

If you want to ship using UPS, the company has created a Holiday Help Center that includes a holiday schedule, instructions for preparing your package and a ship-by calculator to find out if your shipping date will get the package to its destination by Christmas Day.

FedEx has posted its holiday hours for delivery service. You can also get detailed information about operating hours in your area by visiting Find Locations.

If you plan to ship holiday gifts outside the U.S., check out FedEx's international holiday schedules. 

If you need to ship a last minute package on Christmas Day, you can use FedEx Same Day Service.