Does mail get delivered on Thanksgiving?

By Warren Pegg | Nov 21, 2018

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 11: A US Postal worker delivers Amazon boxes outside of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 11, 2018 in New York City. Following a massive sell-off of over 800 points yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 100 points in morning trading. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) /

Thanksgiving is a holiday for most Americans, but will mail be delivered as usual on that day?

Thanksgiving Day is one of ten official postal holidays in the U.S., so there will be no standard mail deliveries, and post offices will also be closed. That doesn’t necessarily mean that all your local postal workers will have the day off, though, as some sorting and transporting of mail continues to take place on Thanksgiving, and the Priority Express delivery service still operates in a number of districts.

You should also bear in mind that some major retailers such as Amazon will be delivering some items on Thanksgiving, although there may well be additional fees to pay depending on the order in question. There won’t be any standard services from the likes of FedEx and UPS, though.

However, on the day after Thanksgiving, namely Black Friday – a day when many places of work are closed and one that a lot of people have come to view as an unofficial holiday of sorts – mail will be delivered as normal.

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Nonetheless, some post offices won’t be opening for their usual hours on Black Friday, meaning you shouldn’t assume that they will remain open as late as you’d normally expect. As a result, it’ll probably be best to pay the post office a visit earlier in the day rather than later. The good news, though, is that even if the hours aren’t exactly the same, the range of services being offered should be.

In addition, please be aware that any items ordered immediately prior to Thanksgiving that have one-day shipping are very unlikely to arrive on Black Friday, as Thanksgiving itself isn’t classed as a business day.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that after Thanksgiving, the sole remaining postal holiday in 2018 will be Tuesday, December 25 – Christmas Day.