I was in Germany for 4 1/2 years in the military. Usually around the end of October they start making announcements of the cutoffs to send and receive items by Christmas. Usually a month to a month and a half before Christmas.

This is caused because there is usually only a single receiving point for the entire military in each region. I worked at the same base in Frankfurt that received all the mail, for all four branchs, for the entire European theater, all of Southwest Asia, and Northern Africa. Thats alot of mail.

Normal mail in the slowest part of the year took 7 to 10 days. Christmas would make things outrageous.