Hoping to get a package to a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan in time for the holidays?

Act now.

The U.S. Postal Service released guidelines recently, setting Dec. 4 as the postmark deadline to ensure delivery of military mail to those locales by Dec. 24.

Military mail for other overseas bases should be sent by Dec. 11 to guarantee holiday delivery, the postal service advised.

The deadlines come as the service expects to deliver 16.6 billion items in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day.

“The Christmas mailing will probably start next week, although if people are sending things overseas, they’re probably already coming in now,” Pleasant Prairie Postmaster Jeannie Magiera said Wednesday.

Other mail-by dates to ensure Christmas Eve delivery:

“I always tell people, to be safe, to allow for more time,” Magiera said.

Karen Cronin, a Madison-based spokeswoman for the postal service, is urging holiday shippers to avoid post office lines by using some of the service’s newer convenience amenities, such as a “Click and Ship” option on usps.com that allows consumers to order shipping boxes for free home delivery and generate postage from a home computer.

“You can prepare your package at home, and on that same screen you can arrange a carrier pickup,” Cronin said.

The postal service is also reminding consumers that due to security concerns, packages that weigh more than 13 ounces must be presented to a letter carrier or a post office retail associate, rather than dropped into a collection box.