Christmas has a habit of sneaking up on us. One minute it’s October, and the next you’re wondering whether there’s still time to send a Christmas present to someone in another part of New Zealand.
The good news? At About Giving, we don’t have a Christmas ordering cut-off. We continue dispatching gifts right through to Christmas Eve.
But there’s a difference between getting a gift dispatched and getting it delivered before Christmas Day.
After more than 40 years in the gifting business, we’ve learnt a thing or two about navigating the Christmas courier rush. Here’s our advice on when to order, how much delivery time to allow and what to do if you’ve left things until the last minute.
For the best chance of delivery before Christmas, we recommend placing your order before 20 December.
At About Giving, we typically dispatch the bulk of our Christmas orders around 18–19 December, allowing time for gifts to travel through New Zealand’s busy courier networks.
For rural addresses, we’d recommend ordering a little earlier.
But if you’ve left it late, don’t panic. We continue dispatching Christmas gifts right through to Christmas Eve, although delivery before Christmas Day becomes less likely as the holiday approaches.
Allow a little longer than usual during December, even for destinations that normally receive overnight delivery.
Here’s what we recommend allowing for Christmas deliveries from About Giving’s Auckland base:
| Delivery destination | Recommended transit allowance |
|---|---|
| Auckland | 2 working days |
| North Island – standard | 2 working days |
| South Island – standard | 3 working days |
| Rural North Island | 3–4 working days |
| Rural South Island | 4–5 working days |
These are planning guidelines, not guaranteed delivery timeframes.
We’ve deliberately allowed an extra working day compared with usual courier transit times.
Why? Because Christmas is incredibly busy for courier depots. Sometimes a parcel arrives at a depot on schedule but sits there for an additional day while the team processes the sheer volume of freight.
It doesn’t necessarily mean anything has gone wrong. It’s simply the reality of Christmas deliveries.
ABOUT GIVING TIP: Don’t plan around the fastest possible courier delivery time in December. Give your gift a little breathing room, particularly if it’s travelling to the South Island or a rural address.
Absolutely. In fact, we’d encourage it.
Our Christmas range is already available for pre-order, with dispatch beginning from 10 November 2026.
You can place your order well ahead of Christmas and choose your preferred delivery date at checkout.
We’ll then plan dispatch around courier guidance for the destination.
That means you can get your Christmas shopping organised in October or November without having presents arriving at someone’s house months before Christmas.
It’s especially handy if you’re buying for several people, sending gifts around New Zealand or organising corporate Christmas presents.
Browse our Christmas Gift Boxes & Hampers and get those names ticked off your list early.
You can select your preferred delivery date, but courier delivery dates cannot be guaranteed.
When you order through About Giving, you choose the date you’d like your gift to arrive.
We then work backwards using the expected transit time and arrange dispatch accordingly.
For example, a gift travelling to Christchurch generally needs more time than one travelling across Auckland.
We do our best to get gifts there on the requested date, but once a parcel enters the courier network, delays can happen.
This is particularly true during December, when depots are handling significantly more parcels than usual.
If it’s important that someone has their present ready to open on Christmas morning, we’d recommend selecting a delivery date a little earlier rather than Christmas Eve itself.
Yes. It’s typically when we dispatch a large proportion of our Christmas orders.
It’s a useful window because gifts don’t arrive excessively early, but there’s still some time for them to make their way through the courier network before Christmas.
Of course, not every address is the same.
If your recipient lives rurally or somewhere that requires a longer transit time, we’ll want to allow additional days.
The key is to think about the destination rather than assuming every parcel in New Zealand travels overnight.
We’ll still take your order and get it dispatched as quickly as possible.
Unlike retailers that stop taking Christmas orders after a particular date, About Giving continues operating right through to Christmas Eve.
On normal dispatch days, orders placed before 2pm can be dispatched the same day, subject to product availability and the applicable courier service.
The closer we get to Christmas, however, the less likely a parcel is to arrive before Christmas Day, especially if it’s travelling outside Auckland.
We’ll always do our part to get your gift moving. What we can’t control is how quickly the courier network delivers it once it leaves us.
And if it arrives a few days after Christmas?
We reckon there’s something rather lovely about an unexpected Christmas present turning up when everyone thought the festivities were over.
Better late than never!
Yes! We continue dispatching eligible gifts on Christmas Eve.
Our Christmas Eve courier collection is scheduled for approximately 1pm, so we recommend ordering as early as possible that morning if you’d like your gift to leave us before Christmas.
There is one important exception: we don’t dispatch flowers on Christmas Eve.
For other eligible gifts, including hampers and suitable plant or tree gifts, we’ll do our best to get late orders out before the final collection.
Keep in mind that a Christmas Eve dispatch won’t arrive on Christmas Day through the standard courier service.
Delivery will resume according to the courier’s working-day schedule after the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays, with timing depending on the destination and observed public holidays.
Standard weekend delivery isn’t included in our usual service, but it may be possible to arrange in advance.
If you specifically need a Saturday delivery, contact us before ordering.
We can look into the available options, although additional courier charges will apply.
Weekend delivery should never be assumed simply because it’s the Christmas season.
Yes. We’d recommend allowing an additional one to two working days for rural addresses.
Rural deliveries often involve another stage of the courier journey, which is why they take longer than deliveries to standard urban addresses.
At Christmas, when freight volumes increase across the country, that extra stage becomes even more important.
If you’re sending a gift to a farm, lifestyle block or another rural property, ordering earlier is the safest approach.
Our advice is to aim for delivery comfortably ahead of Christmas rather than relying on the last possible working day.
Courier backlogs and parcel damage are two of the biggest frustrations we encounter each Christmas.
During the festive season, courier networks process enormous volumes of parcels in a relatively short period.
Even when a gift is packed carefully and dispatched on time, delays can occur while freight is being sorted and moved between depots.
And then there’s breakage.
It’s one of our biggest bugbears, because so much care goes into preparing and presenting a gift before it leaves us.
We pack our gifts with courier travel in mind, but once a parcel enters the network, it passes through several stages of handling.
If something does go wrong, we’ll work with you to find a solution.
Get in touch with us and we’ll help work through it.
Delivery issues are handled case by case because the circumstances can be very different.
Sometimes a parcel is simply delayed at a depot and needs more time.
Other times, something may have been damaged in transit and we need to investigate what happened.
We understand that Christmas gifts are often being sent to people you care about, sometimes from the other side of the world.
We’ll always work towards a practical solution rather than leaving you to figure it out alone.
Yes. Contact us, even if you’ve left it later than planned.
We help businesses organise Christmas gifts for staff, clients and teams, including larger orders going to multiple addresses.
Ideally, we’d love to have plenty of time to plan everything.
But we also know that Christmas can get away on busy workplaces.
If you need to organise corporate gifts at short notice, send us your requirements and we’ll work through what’s possible.
For bulk orders, it’s particularly helpful to have recipient addresses, quantities, budget and preferred delivery timing ready.
The sooner we have those details, the sooner we can get things moving.
Choose something that’s ready to pack and dispatch rather than something that needs extensive customisation.
A ready-made Christmas hamper is an excellent starting point.
Our Christmas Gift Boxes & Hampers range includes options across different budgets, from smaller treats to generous gourmet gifts.
If you know exactly what your recipient enjoys, you can also use Create Your Own to build a gift around their favourite products.
And if you’re looking for something a little different, consider a Living Tree Gift.
Whatever you choose, the important thing when you’re running short of time is to place the order and get it moving.
Don’t spend another three days trying to find the world’s most perfect Christmas present.
If we could give every Christmas shopper one piece of advice, it would be this:
Order before 20 December for your best chance of delivery before Christmas Day.
If you’re sending rurally, aim a little earlier.
If you’re super organised, place your order in advance and choose your preferred delivery date.
And if you’ve suddenly realised it’s Christmas Eve and you’ve forgotten someone?
We’re still here.
We’ll continue getting eligible orders out right up until our final Christmas Eve courier collection.
We can’t promise exactly when the courier will arrive, but we’ll do everything we can to get your gift on its way.
Because we firmly believe a late Christmas present is still better than no Christmas present at all.
Browse About Giving’s Christmas Gift Boxes & Hampers, put together something personal with Create Your Own, or surprise someone with one of our Living Tree Gifts.
Choose your preferred delivery date at checkout, and we’ll take care of the packing and dispatch.
And remember — whether you’re beautifully organised or leaving things until the eleventh hour, we’re here to help.
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