It may only be November but Christmas is already on everyone's mind.

With many of us having family and friends living over seas there will be a huge amount of gifts being sent via post rather than being exchanged in person on Christmas day. Having loved ones living in other countries myself, I like to keep an eye on the final posting dates to countries outside of Ireland when Christmas rolls around. The final posting dates have been released by An Post and some of them are much sooner than you would think. While you can send both cards and parcels all the way up to December 20 for Ireland if you have family outside of Europe you'll have to get those packages sent off before December 7! Standard letters can be sent to the United States up to December 10 but that does not include larger parcels which must be sent beforehand if you want to ensure that they arrive in time for Christmas eve. Final posting dates for Christmas are:

Ireland

Standard Post Letters & Parcels December 20, 2018 Express Post December 21, 2018

Northern Ireland

Standard Post Letters & Parcels December 19, 2018 Express Post December 20, 2018

United Kingdom

Standard Post Letters & Parcels December 18, 2018 Express Post December 19, 2018

Rest of Europe

Standard Post Letters December 18, 2018 Standard Post Parcels December 12, 2018

United States

Standard Post Letters December 10, 2018 Standard Post Parcels December 07, 2018

Rest of the World

Standard Post Letters & Parcels December 07, 2018 Express Post December 10, 2018