The general formula
Print-on-demand items have two windows you need to account for:
1. Production: the time between checkout and the package being handed to a carrier. For our products this is 2–7 business days depending on item type. 2. Shipping: the time the carrier takes to deliver. For US orders this is 3–5 business days domestic; 8–21 business days international.
Total estimated time from checkout to delivery:
- US, stickers/prints: 5–9 business days
- US, apparel/drinkware: 6–11 business days
- US, pins: 7–12 business days
- International (EU/UK): add 5–10 business days to the US estimate
- International (rest of world): add 7–14 business days to the US estimate
We'll use the upper end of those estimates for the calendar below — better to be a few days early than even one day late.
Christmas / Hanukkah / December gifting
Target arrival: December 22 or earlier (cushion for any last-mile delays).
US orders — order by these dates
| Product | Standard shipping | Express shipping |
|---|---|---|
| Stickers, prints | December 8 | December 14 |
| Apparel, drinkware | December 6 | December 13 |
| Pins, accessories | December 4 | December 11 |
| Bulk / custom orders | November 20 | December 1 |
International orders — order by these dates
| Region | Order by |
|---|---|
| Canada | November 28 |
| UK + EU | November 22 |
| Australia + New Zealand | November 18 |
| Rest of world | November 12 |
(These dates assume no major customs delays. December is the worst time of year for customs slowdowns; if your country had backups last year, add 7–10 days.)
Valentine's Day (February 14)
Target arrival: February 12 or earlier.
US orders
| Product | Order by |
|---|---|
| Stickers, prints | February 1 |
| Apparel, drinkware | January 30 |
| Pins, accessories | January 28 |
International orders
| Region | Order by |
|---|---|
| Canada | January 23 |
| UK + EU | January 18 |
| Australia + New Zealand | January 13 |
Mother's Day (second Sunday in May)
Target arrival: the Thursday before.
US orders
| Product | Order by (US) |
|---|---|
| Stickers, prints | ~25 days before |
| Apparel, drinkware | ~28 days before |
| Pins, accessories | ~30 days before |
(We don't write specific dates here because Mother's Day moves year-to-year. Same math, different calendar.)
Father's Day (third Sunday in June)
Same approach as Mother's Day. Count back 25–30 days from the holiday Sunday for US orders, more for international.
Graduations (May–June)
Most graduations cluster between mid-May and mid-June, but local schedules vary. If you're shopping for a graduation:
- For high school grads in late May: order by April 25 (US) / April 15 (international).
- For college grads in mid-May: order by April 18 (US) / April 8 (international).
- For grad school in May/June: check the specific ceremony date and back-calculate using the formula above.
Birthdays, anniversaries, "just because" gifts
For non-holiday gifting, the rule is simple: add a 10-day buffer to whatever date you actually need it by, and order on that earlier date.
You won't always hit it perfectly. Carriers have bad weeks. Production sometimes runs slow during peak seasons. The buffer is there to absorb those bumps without ruining the surprise.
What happens if you're late
If you've missed the recommended order-by date and the gift is for a specific event, you have three options:
1. Order anyway and pay for expedited shipping. We offer expedited options at checkout. This can shave 3–5 business days off the shipping side, but doesn't change production time.
2. Order anyway and explain. Many gift recipients genuinely don't mind getting their gift a few days late — especially with a heads-up. "Your gift is on its way; it'll arrive [date]" is a lovely text to receive on Christmas morning.
3. Buy a placeholder. A bookstore gift card, a handwritten note, or a screenshot of the gift on its way works fine as a placeholder for the day-of, with the actual piece following.
We've had customers do all three. Option two ("your real gift is on its way") usually plays better than people expect.
A note about our shipping cutoffs
If a carrier announces holiday cutoff dates that differ from our recommendations, follow the carrier dates. USPS and UPS publish their last-acceptance dates for guaranteed pre-Christmas delivery every November; we'll post those on our home page when they're announced. Our internal dates above assume normal carrier performance — extreme weather or holiday surges can push real timelines further than predicted.
Order tracking and updates
When your order ships, you'll get an email with a tracking link. You can also enter your order email at our order lookup for status updates — no account needed. We use a "magic link" system so you can check on an order without remembering yet another password.
If a holiday-season order is taking longer than expected, email us at hello@aveoriginals.com. We'd rather hear from you and resolve it than have you stress about an arrival date.
What we make
We're an indie design studio specializing in print-on-demand art objects — pins, stickers, apparel, prints, drinkware. A lot of our orders during the holidays are gifts, and we've spent years optimizing for the strange logistics of holiday POD timing. The calendar above is what we've learned.
Browse our latest designs and order early. Your future self in mid-December, when everyone else is paying $40 in expedited shipping, will thank you.
Wishing you a calm gifting season.