It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Nobody knows that better than employees at McMinnville Post Office.
"It's already getting started," said McMinnville postmaster Brent Nunley of the Christmas rush. "We're seeing a lot more packages. We're getting palettes of packages from Amazon every day."
The U.S. Postal Service is expecting to deliver 16 billion cards, letters and packages this Christmas season. That includes about 750 million packages as the Postal Service is the country's largest e-commerce distributor.
A 12 percent increase in volume is predicted this year over last year. Monday, Dec. 19 is expected to be the busiest mailing day of the year. Dec. 22 is expected to be the busiest delivery day.
To help ensure your package arrives on time, the Postal Service has issued the following guidelines:
• Dec. 15 -- retail ground
• Dec. 20 -- first-class mail
• Dec. 21 -- priority mail
• Dec. 23 -- priority mail express
The increase in volume over the holidays is staggering.
"McMinnville Post Office receives approximately 1,500 to 2,000 packages on a normal delivery day," said Nunley. "We expect that number to jump to as many as 7,000 in one delivery day. Our whole team is ready to serve you this Christmas season."