Christmas shipping test: What options are fastest, cheapest?

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Tuesday, Dec.15 is the last day to send a package through standard mail at the Post Office and make sure it arrives by Christmas. After Tuesday, you’ll have to pay extra to make sure gifts arrive on time. UPS, USPS and FedEx all offer a guaranteed Christmas delivery if you ship by Dec. 23, but those options will cost much more money.

So which company do you use? And how much do you pay? 24-Hour News 8’s Jessica Smith put the big delivery services to the test.

We teamed with our sister station, WFLA in Tampa, Florida, to ship each other gifts. Both stations sent one package through UPS, one through USPS and another through FedEx. 24-Hour News 8 sent WFLA three WISH-TV mugs and paid for shipping and packing supplies at each location.THE COST

Two-day delivery at USPS, plus bubble wrap and a box cost $12.29. Two-day delivery, plus packing services cost $25.26 at FedEx. Two-day delivery with packing supplies at UPS was about $50, so we decided to save some cash and go with three-day delivery. Our total was $40.11 at UPS.THE RESULTS

The FedEx package made it to Tampa in two days, as promised. UPS delivered our mug on time, too. USPS first tried to deliver our package one day late, but couldn’t get in to the WFLA building. USPS ended up delivering the mug three days late.TAMPA TO INDIANAPOLIS 

The UPS package coming to Indianapolis from Tampa arrived three days early. FedEx delivered the gift right on time. The USPS package was supposed to arrive Monday, but has not been delivered as of Tuesday morning.WEB EXTRA

If you’re worried about your packages being stolen from your porch, UPS gave us several tips on how to protect your Christmas gifts. Watch the video here: