Are Some Mails Slower Than Other Mails?

I have found that items that were mailed before Christmas are arriving later than items mailed after Christmas. I received something that was mailed on December 18, 2014 on the same day as something that was mailed on January 3, 2015. Is it possible that items that were mailed between the Christmas cut off and Christmas were somehow held back or backlogged?

Most post offices had backlogs in December and the backlog would have carried through to early Jan. Our post office even had a night shift trying to keep up with xmas cards but could not. Generally I find my December mail delayed and arriving early in January and yes with early Jan mail sometimes overtaking December mail. Parcels from December even slower. Its common to happen every year the December mail being slow so buyers need to allow more time in December for their ebay stamp items to arrive from any country. I buy all my xmas ebay presents in November to avoid the last minute rush. Xmas cards came very late, had some of them last week.

jogil,

I see you're in the Toronto area same as me.
I'm in Newmarket about 50K north of Toronto and usually
mail delivery is pretty efficient.
For e\xample one day for letters mailed to me from Toronto
or from Newmarket to TO. You can't beat that.
From Europe (usually Austria) I've gotten airmail
as quick as 4 days, hardly ever more than a week.

I have one of these community mail boxes and except
for the odd wrong letter in my slot or my mail in someone
elses it usually works OK.

This year though I received no mail at all in the week between Christmas and New Year,
not even flyers, nothing, which is unusual.
These people who stuff the boxes are not CP employes but
self employed working for Canada Post, so maybe
Canada Post told them to take a week off.

lithograving: I also just received something that I thought was lost in the mail from a few months back which I was glad to finally get. The scary thing is seeing newer mailed stuff get here faster than older mailed stuff that has been in the mail longer.

When I lived in Canada I thought the mail was inconsistent and frustrating at best.

Like Lithograving it was good a times, but like jogil mentions it was hit or miss. not dependable. At least now they don't go on strike every six months like they did years ago.

Here in the US I have found it to be consistent and generally predictable. Also about half the cost of Canada Post.