Deadlines for Holiday Care Packages to Soldiers

Ready to send your soldier a care package for Christmas? Don’t delay! The deadlines are approaching fast!

The USPS has released guidelines with the last date you can send your packages to ensure delivery by Christmas.

Christmas Care Package Deadlines

Find your soldier’s zip code to see the corresponding dates:

APO/FPO/DPO AE ZIPs™ 090-092: First class and priority mail must be sent by December 10th.

APO/FPO/DPO AE ZIPs™ 093: First class and priority mail must be sent by December 3rd.

APO/FPO/DPO AE ZIPs™ 094-098:  First class and priority mail must be sent by December 10th.

Military Care Kits from USPS

I don’t know about you but when I was sending my husband care packages on a regular basis, I was always hunting down supplies. And it never failed that the post office would be out of the box size I needed the most!

All of that can be simplified by ordering the military care kit. They send you several size boxes, packing tape, labels, and custom forms! Makes it simple (and I feel a bit like an advertisement for the post office! lol) and best of all, it’s free!

They will even assign you a number so it will make reordering easy in the future.

The kit contains:

• Two APO/FPO Large Priority Box (12 x 12 x 5-1/2)
• Two Medium Priority Box 1 (11 x 8-1/2 x 5-1/2)
• Two Medium Priority Box 2 (13-5/8 x 11-7/8 x 3-3/8)
• Priority Mail tape.
• Priority Mail address labels.
• Appropriate customs forms.

The Package Supply Center can be reached via phone at 1-800-610-8734 (Advise the customer to say “order supplies” when prompted.)

Care Package Ideas & Tips

Feel like you’re running out of ideas for care packages? No worries – I have you covered. You’ll find more than you can probably even read about in one sitting here.

If you’re looking for specific holidays, check out these ideas. Or if you’d like to get ideas from others who have submitted their suggestions, check them out here.

For tips on packaging and packing your care package, we have a list of top tips here.