I’ll never forget the Monday morning of Martin Luther King Jr. Day a few years back. We had just come off a massive weekend promo, and our warehouse team was pumped. We had 2,000 orders packed, labeled, and staged on the dock by 2:00 PM, waiting for the brown truck.
The driver never came.
I hadn't checked the holiday schedule closely enough. I assumed that because it wasn't Christmas or Thanksgiving, UPS was running. That single oversight meant 2,000 "Your order has shipped!" emails went out, but the tracking didn't update for another 24 hours. Our support ticket volume spiked 18% on Tuesday morning with customers asking, "Why does it say Label Created but not moving?"
Managing a DTC brand isn’t just about marketing calendars; it’s about aligning your fulfillment velocity with the reality of carrier operations. If you don't have the UPS holiday schedule 2025 memorized (or at least taped to the warehouse fridge), you are setting yourself up for a "Monday Morning Hangover" of angry emails.
The 2025 UPS Holiday Schedule (The "Red Days")
If you are running ops, these are the days you need to block off in your WMS (Warehouse Management System). On these dates, there are no pickups, no deliveries, and the UPS Store locations are generally closed.
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New Year's Day: Wednesday, January 1, 2025
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Monday, January 20, 2025
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Easter Sunday: Sunday, April 20, 2025 (UPS Ground doesn't run Sundays anyway, but standard operations are paused).
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Memorial Day: Monday, May 26, 2025
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Independence Day: Friday, July 4, 2025
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Labor Day: Monday, September 1, 2025
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Thanksgiving Day: Thursday, November 27, 2025
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Christmas Day: Thursday, December 25, 2025
Operational Note: UPS Express Critical service is available 365 days a year, but unless you are shipping human organs or aircraft parts, the cost (often $300+) makes it irrelevant for standard ecommerce.
The "Green Days" (When You Can Get Ahead)
This is where smart operators win. There are several federal holidays where banks and the US Postal Service (USPS) are closed, but UPS is open.
Use these days to clear your backlog while your competitors (who rely on USPS) are stuck.
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Presidents' Day: Monday, February 17, 2025 (UPS Open / USPS Closed)
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Juneteenth: Thursday, June 19, 2025 (UPS Open / USPS Closed)
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Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples' Day: Monday, October 13, 2025 (UPS Open / USPS Closed)
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Veterans Day: Tuesday, November 11, 2025 (UPS Open / USPS Closed)
Here’s where ops breaks… If you use a "hybrid" service like UPS SurePost or UPS Mail Innovations, these "Green Days" are tricky. UPS will pick up the package from your dock, but because the final mile is handled by the Post Office (which is closed), the "Estimated Delivery Date" will lag by 24 hours. We usually put a banner on our checkout page during these weeks: "Heads up: Federal holidays may add 1 day to standard shipping."
Is FedEx Closed on Labor Day? (The Competitor Check)
Operators always ask me if they can switch carriers to bypass a holiday. "If UPS is closed, can I just print a FedEx label?"
Usually, no. The private carriers generally align their schedules.
Is FedEx closed on Labor Day 2025? Yes. Both UPS and FedEx treat Labor Day (Sept 1) as a hard stop. No ground service, no home delivery, no express.
However, there is a nuance with FedEx Office locations. Some retail locations have modified hours on holidays where UPS Stores are fully closed. If you have a desperate need to drop off a package so it gets the first scan on Tuesday morning, a FedEx Office drop box inside a 24/7 kiosk might be your only option—but it won't move until Tuesday.
The "Holiday Trash Pick Up Schedule 2025" Trap
This sounds ridiculous, but I have seen it shut down a warehouse.
In the chaos of planning your ups holiday schedule 2025, do not forget the municipal services. We had a situation after Black Friday (BFCM) where we generated 4x our normal volume of cardboard waste. We knew UPS was coming on Friday, so we packed like crazy.
But we forgot to check the holiday trash pick up schedule 2025 for our industrial park. The waste management company pushed pickup from Thursday (Thanksgiving) to Friday... but then skipped Friday because of volume. By Monday, our compactor was overflowing, and we legally couldn't stack more pallets of cardboard in the fire lanes. We had to stop packing orders because we had nowhere to put the waste.
The Fix: Call your waste management vendor in October. Ask for an extra pickup sweep specifically for the week after Thanksgiving and Christmas. It costs ~$200 and saves you from a total gridlock.
UPS Closing Time and "Modified" Hours
When the schedule says "Open" on a holiday eve, it usually comes with an asterisk.
When does UPS close on Christmas Eve (Dec 24) or New Year's Eve (Dec 31)?
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Drivers: They aim to be off the road by 5:00 PM or 6:00 PM.
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UPS Stores: Often close early (e.g., 4:00 PM).
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Air Pickup: If you have a scheduled daily pickup, UPS might cancel it unless you specifically request it.
Honest failure: In 2023, we had a scheduled daily pickup at 4:30 PM. On New Year's Eve, the driver didn't show. We called the depot, and they said, "Oh, we switched to 'On-Call' pickups for commercial routes today. You didn't call." We had 400 "New Year's Resolution" orders sitting on the dock until January 2nd.
Lesson: Never assume your daily pickup is automatic on a "Modified Service" day. Call your rep a week in advance and confirm.
UPS Holiday Schedule 2025 PDF: Create Your Own
You can find the official UPS holiday schedule 2025 pdf on the UPS website under "Holiday Operations," but don't just email that link to your team. They won't read it.
I recommend creating a "Warehouse One-Pager."
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Take the dates above.
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Add your internal cutoff times (e.g., "Last order for Xmas delivery: Dec 18").
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Add the holiday trash pick up schedule 2025 dates.
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Print it on neon paper and tape it to every pack station and the shipping computer.
Handling the "Post-Holiday" Return Surge
The schedule matters most after the holiday.
We see a massive spike in returns starting January 2nd (people returning gifts) and July 5th (people returning summer sale items). In 2024, our returns volume jumped 5.3x the week after New Year's. Because UPS had been closed for the holiday, the backlog at the local hub hit us all at once on January 3rd.
Instead of getting 50 return packages a day, we got 350. Our receiving team drowned. We now use this data to staff up. If UPS is closed Monday, we schedule double staff for Tuesday receiving.
We route eligible returns locally instead of sending everything back to the warehouse — cutting return cost from ~$35 to ~$5 and speeding refunds.
Operators always ask me... (FAQs)
What time does UPS stop delivering on Christmas Eve?
Operators always ask me if they can squeeze in one last delivery. UPS drivers typically try to finish residential routes by 8:00 PM on Christmas Eve, but commercial pickups often stop by 4:00 PM. If you haven't handed the package to the driver by mid-afternoon, it's not flying out until the 26th.
Is UPS open on Easter Monday?
Common question I see. Yes, UPS is fully operational on Easter Monday. However, because Easter Sunday is a total shutdown, volume on Monday is often heavier than usual. Expect slight delays in sorting at the hub level.
Does UPS deliver on Saturdays in 2025?
Yes, for residential packages. UPS Ground delivers to homes on Saturdays as a standard service. However, they generally do not pick up from commercial warehouses on Saturdays unless you have a specific contract addendum. Do not promise a "shipped on Saturday" status if you don't have a truck coming to your dock.
Conclusion
The UPS holiday schedule 2025 is a predictable beast, but it still bites unprepared operators every year. The costs of getting it wrong—stalled inventory, angry customers, and overtime pay—are too high to ignore.
Take ten minutes today to put these blackout dates in your company Google Calendar. Alert your support team so they can adjust their "Where is my order?" macros. And please, for the sake of your loading dock, check the dumpster schedule.
We route eligible returns locally instead of sending everything back to the warehouse — cutting return cost from ~$35 to ~$5 and speeding refunds.
If you are looking to optimize your shipping calendar further, check out our Brand Hub. You might also find our guide on return hubs useful for smoothing out those nasty post-holiday return spikes.
