--- title: "US post offices close on Nov. 11 and Nov. 26: what still ships and the 2026 holiday mail deadlines" url: https://badiyaa.com/post-office-closures-november-2026-holiday-mail-deadlines/ published: 2026-10-15T17:55:00+01:00 modified: 2026-10-15T17:55:00+01:00 section: Lifestyle publisher: Badiyaa --- # US post offices close on Nov. 11 and Nov. 26: what still ships and the 2026 holiday mail deadlines Veterans Day falls on a Wednesday and Thanksgiving on Nov. 26. Priority Mail Express still moves on holidays, and the last Ground Advantage date for Christmas is Dec. 17. Every US Postal Service post office will shut its retail counters on two days next month: Wednesday, November 11, for Veterans Day, and Thursday, November 26, for Thanksgiving. Both are on the 2026 federal holiday calendar published by the [Office of Personnel Management](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/), and the Postal Service closes its counters and stops regular delivery on federal holidays. ## The two closure days, and what they mean in practice On a postal holiday there is no residential or business delivery and no collection from blue boxes. The agency’s own holiday notices say normal delivery and collection pick up again the next day, so a letter dropped in a collection box on the evening of Tuesday, November 10, will not move until Thursday, November 12. Plan on losing a full day of transit for anything you post the night before either holiday. Veterans Day landing mid-week is the one that catches people out. It splits the working week in two, and because it is not a holiday for many private employers, it is easy to forget until the mail carrier does not show up. Thanksgiving is simpler, because most people already expect closures. A common mistake is assuming the Friday after it, November 27, is also a postal holiday. It is not on the federal list, which runs from New Year’s Day to Christmas Day and contains 11 dates in 2026. If you plan to go in that day, check your local branch’s posted hours first. ## What still moves on the holidays One Postal Service product keeps running: Priority Mail Express, which the agency delivers every day of the year, holidays included. If a document or package has to arrive on November 11 or November 26, that is the only USPS option, and it has to be in the system before the holiday. Private carriers treat the two days differently. UPS lists Thanksgiving among the seven holidays when it is closed, with only its UPS Express Critical service still available, but Veterans Day is not on that closed list. If you need a pickup or a delivery on November 11, a private carrier is the realistic route; on November 26, almost nothing ships. Stamps do not depend on the counter. Most grocery stores and pharmacies sell them, and self-service kiosks in some post office lobbies stay usable after hours. ## The holiday deadlines that follow The closures sit right before the busiest shipping stretch of the year. The Postal Service published its recommended send-by dates for delivery before December 25 in September. For addresses in the lower 48 states: - USPS Ground Advantage and First-Class Mail: Thursday, December 17 - Priority Mail: Friday, December 18 - Priority Mail Express: Saturday, December 19 - International First-Class Package and Priority Mail International: Wednesday, December 9 - Military Ground Advantage to APO/FPO/DPO addresses: Wednesday, November 4 Counting from Thanksgiving Day, that leaves 21 days until the Ground Advantage cutoff and just 13 days until the international cutoff, so a parcel for family in Canada, Europe or Mexico should realistically go out in the first week of December. The military date is the tightest: November 4 arrives a week before Veterans Day and 20 days from today, October 15. Hanukkah also starts early this year, on December 4, and the Postal Service has asked people mailing for it to adjust their dates. Working back from that, a Ground Advantage gift for the first night would be safest sent before Thanksgiving week rather than after it. The next date on the calendar is November 4, the last recommended day to send Ground Advantage parcels to service members overseas in time for December 25. ## Further reading - [OPM: Federal Holidays 2026](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/) *Image: DanTD, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*