Roanoke residents rush to post office as USPS deadline for Christmas shipping nears

ROANOKE, Va.- – Janice Stout needed to make a quick run to the post office three days before Christmas. She has about 30 Christmas cards to send off.

"I always wait to the last minute for some reason, she said. "I was way ahead of the game. I had all my shopping done 1 December. And then I kind of got in a stalemate. So I still have presents to wrap and I'm just now getting my cards out."

But she won't be upset if her cards don't make it in time.

"It's OK to get them up after Christmas, I think. You'll still get them during the holidays and people know you're thinking of them," said Stout. 

The United States Postal Service expects this week to be the busiest for holiday mailing and shipping with nearly 3 billion pieces of mail. But there is a deadline if you want your packages to arrive before or on Christmas Day. 

"For the ultimate procrastinator the Postal Service is recommending Saturday, Dec. 22 as the deadline for priority mail express," said Susan Wright with USPS Corp Communications. 

Gabriel Frias works for Gonzales Dry Wall LLC. He's returning gifts that were intended for employees but didn't quite work out. 

"We order some things off of eBay and we'e having to end up sending them back because they were a little too small. They were supposed to be gifts for the workers. We own a company. They were just a little too small," said Frias. 

There's not much time left but he's hoping to make it right. 

"We are supposed be getting some replacements and hopefully they'll be in before Monday," said Frias. There's regular mail delivery on Christmas Eve, but only priority mail express will be delivered Christmas Day.