The Festive Season....has Your Mail Arrived ?

The month of December is usually the busiest month of the year for mail. Huge volumes are sent and received during the Christmas and New Year season.
The year 2010 was seemingly one of the worst ever, at least from where I am sitting it was....and still is !
In the UK, the sale of greetings cards was way down as people turned to ecards and email. It may have been a similar story elsewhere too.

From the UK alone, I am still awaiting the arrival of [at least] 13 items of mail...all posted BEFORE Christmas. At least 4 of the items were posted between 4th-10th of December.
Two of the items are quite expensive Philatelic packets, one less expensive, 5 Birthday Greetings cards and the rest Christmas greetings cards. And they are the ones I know about!

It is not only from the UK. I have friends here in our village from Denmark and France and they are still waiting for their Christmas Greetings and gifts from friends and family.
From December 19th, I have only received four items of mail, two from Canada and two from the USA. One was uncancelled, one got the dreaded Marker Monkey and one was destroyed...well, almost.
Items of mail that I sent from here have been arriving, but not all.

But is it the time to worry ?
In the UK, there were holidays for 4 days at Christmas and New Year for Postal workers. That's over a week in total. Plus, the airports were closed for some time during the bad weather. When I phoned them to make a general enquiry, I was told that mail to Europe and beyond did not move from December 19th until after Christmas. But due to the extended holiday, the mails moved much later...and then stopped again for the New Year. I was advised that it may be Mid-January before the backlog is cleared.

So should I worry ?
Has anyone else experienced the slowing of the mails ?
I am a little concerned that I have been singled out again because I am a collector of Stamps. This has happened before on two occasions.

I'd be interested to hear if all your mail has arrived, or if it is much slower from some destinations than others.

Thanks

Londonbus1

I certainly have experienced some slowing of the mails, though now things seem to be picking up again. I would not worry if I were you. Now, come Valentine's day and you are still waiting, then I would worry.

My mailing to my Secret Santa recipient went over the pond, and it took many days longer than I expected, but it did make it in time (just). I'm waiting a few days more than I thought I would for a couple Canada-to-US envelopes; mail around the US seems to be zipping along at its normal pace.

Sorry to hear about your problems with the postman not knocking at all.

I received a Christmas Card today posted 40 miles away on the 20th of December....

I made an order from Royal Mail on December 1st. It only got to me, in Portugal, on December 21st.
The week before I had contacted them and they gave me the same information about the snow and the closed airports. It actually makes a bit of sense. The airports were misery the 2 weeks before Christmas with all the snow. I had colleagues getting stuck or suffering delays in their travels.

Well, Royal Mail messed up on my order and I contacted them on the 22nd. Still waiting for the mail. They told me on the 22nd that they'd send it special delivery. I remained hopeful the 'Christmas' present (ya, it was supposed to be a gift for a friend) would arrive before the year end. Last week I called and they informed me about the backlog and the holiday season (long weekends and vacations) and asked me to wait another week (which ends tomorrow).
I'll call them next week if I don't get it tomorrow. You can only hope...

Indeed Andrew.
I am hoping each day.
There is no post here now until Sunday, but as no flights carrying mail arrive until Monday, it means the earliest I might see anything from the UK is Tuesday....fully three weeks and two days since my last item of mail from the UK arrived. Easily a record.

I wonder just how big the backlog is.......





Londonbus1.....So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for you, ou,ou....

Last year was a busy wait an extra week time and this year with both Christmas and New Years falling on weekends I imagine it is wait an extra two weeks anyway and hope it doesn't get sent to Antarctica or somewhere where you have to wait for the boat to come after the ice thaws.

How does New Zealand Private Posts work at this time of year I wonder?

Londonbus1
Our posts have been extremely slow this year .
Coupled with the extra days off due to the holidays being on the weekend.
No mail from you yet , plus the Secret Santa is late .
I did receive A note from santa saying it was delayed.
But, Like my mum used to say "Mustn't grumble"
David-DJD

Have to admit that I was actually very impressed with delivery this year. Parcels within the country seemed to take half the time they usually do and letters and cards about as usual. One mailed here on Dec. 17 was delivered in Victoria on the 19th and 2 others mailed the same day were delivered in Regina on the 21st. And this was just regular parcel rate. Parcels coming the other way seemed to get the same fast treatment.

I too found parcels moved across Canada quite fast, however letter mail was a bit erratic. I received 2 Christmas cards from Montreal, each mailed Dec 16, one arriving a few days before Christmas, the other arriving Dec 29. And my Secret Santa gift which was launched to its destination just over Surrey on Dec 17 does not appear to have landed yet.

David,

Your packet was posted on December 12th !
I posted over 20 items of mail on the same day. Others are also in the mailstream still.
I hope for the best.

Londonbus1

I posted 2 letters on the same day (Dec. 27). One went 300 miles in 7 days, the other went to UK in 8 days. Just another postal mystery.

I agree, stuff I sent down under has not arrived. Stuff I sent out west has not arrived, at least not that I know of.
How many people received their Secret Santa packets?

Also remember that there was some very bad weather in many places over the Holidays that really slowed the Airports and general travel down.

Santa arrived on Friday
The selection were assembled with great thought into my collecting interests, Thank you .
I am thrilled with the gift.
David-DJD