Last shipping day before Christmas: notices and returns

In December, online store customers ask one question: “will this arrive before Christmas Eve?” If the answer isn’t in the top bar, on the product page and in the cart, they write an email, call or buy where the deadline is visible at once. After the holidays a second question comes back: “can I return this because the gift wasn’t right?”

Below: how to calculate the shipping deadline, where to show it in your store and in Google, and how to write down a longer return period for gifts. As of 30 October 2026.

Count back from Christmas Eve

Since 2025, 24 December has been a statutory day off work (Journal of Laws, or Dz.U., 2024, item 1965). In 2026 Christmas Eve falls on a Thursday, and 25 and 26 December are a Friday and a Saturday. The first ordinary business day after the holidays is Monday, 28 December.

That is why you should take Wednesday, 23 December as the last delivery day. From that date subtract the transit time and the packing time, counting in business days. An example for a store that ships orders the next business day, with a courier that delivers a parcel within up to 2 days:

Plug in your own numbers: how long packing takes in the December rush and how long your carrier takes, separately for each delivery method. It is better to give a date one day earlier and keep your word.

Carrier deadlines for 2026

As of 25 October 2026, InPost, Poczta Polska, DPD and ORLEN Paczka had not published Christmas deadlines for 2026. For orientation: on 8 December 2025 InPost announced that parcels sent to Paczkomat lockers by Monday, 22 December, 13:00 (16:00 in some zones) would be delivered by Tuesday, 23 December. The guarantee did not cover home deliveries.

Where to show the last order day

A date in the terms and conditions is not enough. The deadline should be where the customer makes the decision:

1. A bar at the top of every page. Short: date, time and delivery method.
2. The product page, next to the “Add to cart” button, especially when the product ships from the supplier’s warehouse.
3. The cart and delivery choice. For each method, information on whether the parcel will arrive before Christmas Eve.
4. The order confirmation email. The planned shipping day, so the customer doesn’t have to ask.
5. The “Delivery” page and the FAQ. A full table of deadlines for all delivery methods.

A countdown timer makes sense only if it counts down to a real deadline and doesn’t shift by a day every day.

Ready-made texts to copy

The dates come from the example above; insert your own.

Bar before the deadline:

Gifts on time: order with courier delivery by Friday, 18 December, 12:00, and your parcel will arrive before Christmas Eve. You will find the deadlines for other delivery methods in the Delivery tab.

Bar after the deadline:

Orders placed after 12:00 on 18 December will be shipped as soon as possible, but we do not guarantee delivery before Christmas Eve. Orders placed from 23 December will be shipped on Monday, 28 December. A last-minute gift? Choose a gift card sent by email.

Change the bar right after the cut-off time. If your platform doesn’t let you schedule the banner, decide who changes the text and at what time.

The same deadline in Merchant Center and Google Business Profile

A customer often sees a product in Google first. When the delivery date there differs from the one in the bar, they lose trust in both.

Google Merchant Center. In the menu on the left choose Products and store, then Shipping and returns, and in the shipping policies the Delivery time tab. There you set the order cut-off time (the hour up to which an order is processed on the same business day), the order handling time and the transit time, both in business days. Google adds the two times together and estimates the delivery date. From Google’s help page on delivery time it is worth remembering two things. If you leave the cut-off time empty, Google assumes 8:00 Pacific time, which in winter is 17:00 in Poland. In addition, Poland is not on the list of countries whose holidays Google itself treats as days off when counting. So in December check that your settings don’t promise delivery on a day when nobody is out delivering, and extend the transit time if necessary.

How to show products in Google and prepare a feed I described in the guide on Google Merchant Center for free.

Google Business Profile. If the store has a showroom or a pickup point with a listing, add a post with the same deadline: Posts, then Add post and the Update type. I described special hours and other holiday posts in the guide Google Business Profile for the holidays.

A longer return period for gifts: what the law says

Poland’s Consumer Rights Act (ustawa o prawach konsumenta) gives a consumer 14 days to withdraw from a distance contract without giving a reason (Art. 27). The period runs from the moment the consumer, or a person indicated by the consumer other than the carrier, takes possession of the goods, and for an order delivered in several parcels from the last of them (Art. 28). Not from the day of purchase.

In practice a gift bought early may lose its statutory right of return even before the holidays: for a parcel received on 3 December the period ends on 17 December. That is why some stores extend the return period before Christmas. It is a voluntary promise, not an obligation. The act declares void only provisions less favorable to the consumer than its own rules (Art. 7), so you can give more.

Before you announce it, decide:

• which orders it covers (the date range of placing the order) and until when a return can be requested; one specific date is clearer than “30 days”,
• whether the same rules apply as for statutory withdrawal: the form, the cost of sending back, the deadline for refunding money,
• exceptions: goods for which the right of withdrawal does not apply, e.g. made to the customer’s specification, perishable, or hygiene goods once the sealed packaging has been opened (Art. 38),
• who can request a return. The right of withdrawal belongs to the buyer. If you let the gift recipient request a return, write that the money goes back to the buyer, as a rule by the same payment method (Art. 32).

Think about January, too. You return the money within 14 days of receiving the statement of withdrawal. If you don’t offer to collect the goods, you may withhold the refund until you receive the goods or proof that they have been sent back (Art. 32). With an extended period, requests may pile up in the first half of January, so plan time for that.

EU Directive 2023/2673 provides for a “withdraw from the contract here” function in online stores. EU countries were to apply it from 19 June 2026, but in Poland at the end of October 2026 the rules were still a draft amendment to the Consumer Rights Act (UC169 in the government’s list of legislative work). Take this into account when you rebuild your returns panel.

This is not legal advice, only a description of the rules as of 30 October 2026. For unusual products or sales abroad, have a lawyer review your terms and conditions.

A ready-made clause for your terms and conditions, and an announcement

A sample section you can adapt to your own dates and numbering:

§ 12. Extended return period for gifts

1. A customer who is a consumer, or an entrepreneur with consumer rights, who placed an order from 1 November 2026 to 24 December 2026 may withdraw from the contract without giving a reason until 15 January 2027. If the statutory 14-day period ends later, the statutory period applies.
2. The rules of withdrawal described in § 11 apply to the extended period, including the way of submitting the statement, sending back the goods and refunding the payment.
3. The extended period does not cover goods for which the right of withdrawal does not apply under Art. 38 of the Consumer Rights Act.
4. The provisions of this section do not limit the consumer’s rights arising from the law.

Announce the longer return period as visibly as the shipping deadline:

Gift not quite right? Orders placed from 1 November to 24 December can be returned until 15 January 2027. Details in the terms and conditions.

Set the same in Merchant Center: in the Shipping and returns section choose the Return policies tab, in the return period extension step click Add extension and enter the date range and the new return deadline (Google’s help page on return policies).

After the deadline: what to offer latecomers

Offer a gift card sent by email, in-store pickup with set hours for 21–23 December (if you have a location), or an honest shipping date after the holidays. It is better to lose one sale than to promise a delivery the carrier will not make.

Summary: a checklist for November and December

1. Calculate the last order day for each delivery method, counting back from Wednesday, 23 December.
2. Add the deadline to the bar, the product page, the cart and the confirmation email.
3. Prepare the bar for the period after the deadline.
4. Set the delivery time in Merchant Center and add a post with the deadline in Google Business Profile.
5. If you extend returns, add a section to the terms and conditions and add the extension in Merchant Center.
6. At the start of December check the carriers’ deadlines and correct the dates everywhere at once.

I will check your terms and conditions, the withdrawal information and the store’s other obligations during a store compliance audit (from PLN 1,290 net). I will set up delivery time and return policies in Google as part of the Google Merchant and marketplaces service, and if you are only now planning an online store, we will prepare the deadlines and messages from the start. Write to me, I reply within 24 hours.