By the Waymore Shipping Operations Team | Last updated: October 16, 2026 | 12 min read

Our Holiday Logistics Schedule: Christmas & New Year 2026

Waymore Shipping operates through the Christmas and New Year period. Our Shenzhen, Ningbo and Shanghai teams keep handling bookings, customs declarations and LCL consolidation every day except a reduced, urgent-only service on December 25 and January 1. Ocean vessels sail on normal schedules; the real holiday bottlenecks sit at destination — closed warehouses, paused delivery networks and customs offices that skip December 25 and January 1. Here is the full holiday logistics schedule, so you can plan around it.

We publish this notice every year because the questions are always the same: Are you open? Will my container load on time? Will customs clear over the holidays? The answers below reflect how our operations actually ran through previous holiday seasons, not a template. If your case is unusual, message us — someone real will answer.

Is Waymore Shipping Open During Christmas and New Year?

Yes — with two reduced-service days. China does not observe Christmas as a public holiday, so our origin-side operation runs on a near-normal rhythm all week. Here is the day-by-day picture from December 24, 2026 through January 2, 2027:

Practical notes on the two reduced days: containers still load and sail at Chinese ports, customs pre-clearances already filed keep processing, and any vessel emergency (a rolled box, a documentation hold) gets handled by the duty coordinator. What waits until the next business day is the routine — new quote requests, non-urgent document revisions, and general questions.

What Are the Last Shipping Dates Before Christmas?

If your goal is cargo arriving before December 25, work backwards from the destination. Ocean transit does not pause for the holidays, but destination receiving does, so boxes ideally land just before the closures or in the first week of January. Based on typical transit times, the last useful sailings are approximately:

These dates assume smooth export customs and no missed cutoff. If you are anywhere near the line, tell us the destination and required arrival date, and we will name the actual vessel and its cut-off time rather than guessing. Note that missing these dates is not a disaster for most cargo — a late-December sailing simply means a January arrival, which is fine unless you are feeding retail shelves.

What Slows Down at the Destination During the Holidays?

This is the part importers most often underestimate. Your container may sail, arrive and discharge exactly on schedule — and then wait. Between December 24 and January 2, expect these destination-side frictions:

• Customs offices. In the US, CBP keeps operational coverage at ports, but entry processing slows; in the EU and UK, many customs systems run skeleton service on December 25–26 and January 1. Filings submitted on those days usually process the next business day.
• Container yards and warehouses. Deconsolidation warehouses, FBA receiving and trucking companies run reduced shifts. LCL cargo discharged on December 24 often sits until December 27–28 before it is devanned.
• Delivery networks. Trucking appointments compress; chassis availability tightens on US lanes during what is, ironically, one of the year's slower import weeks but a busy domestic freight week.
• Free-time clocks. Most terminals count December 25 and January 1 as regular days. A box arriving around December 20 with five free days can start accruing demurrage while the destination is on holiday — a trap we detail in our demurrage and detention guide.

Our counter-moves for clients with holiday-window arrivals: request extra free time from the carrier when booking (usually granted cheaply in this quiet week), pre-file all destination documents before December 23, and for LCL choose direct services over transshipment so the devan date is predictable. If your cargo needs customs work at destination, our year-end customs clearance guide covers the year-end paperwork rhythm in detail.

Five Practical Tips for Shipping Over the Holidays

1. Go paperless where possible. Couriered original bills of lading sit in closed courier offices on December 25–26. Telex release or eBL removes the entire problem — we process most of our clients' B/Ls this way, and our bill of lading explainer shows the differences.
2. Settle charges before December 31. Bank holidays pause international transfers on January 1; an unpaid balance can hold a document release at exactly the wrong moment.
3. Check winter routings. December sailings face North Pacific winter weather — see our winter shipping delay guide for what is normal versus what is not.
4. Use the quiet week for paperwork. December 26–30 is the best week of the year to prepare January bookings: get quotes, send packing lists, arrange January inspections while our desk is at full staff.
5. Track vessels yourself. Tools like MarineTraffic let you watch your ship's progress in real time, even when reply times are longer than usual.

Planning Beyond the Holidays: The January Restart

The holidays also set the tone for the first quarter, so a little January thinking in December pays double. When vessels return to full rotation in the first week of January, destination yards process a small backlog of boxes discharged during the quiet days; clearing that takes two to three business days, and cargo with pre-filed documents moves first. Importers shipping to Amazon fulfillment centers should note that FBA receiving appointments stay scarce into early January — book delivery windows as soon as your vessel date firms up. Buyers in the EU should double-check that VAT and EORI details on January shipments are correct before the break, because a compliance query raised on a December 28 arrival waits for the office to reopen. And if your cargo is not time-sensitive at all, remember that January sailings right after the holiday rush often carry friendlier space availability than the pre-Christmas peak — a quiet-week booking made between December 26 and 30 frequently secures a better January rate than one made in the New Year scramble. Our coordinators hold full staffing hours exactly for this kind of planning, so use them.

How to Reach Us During the Holidays

Between December 24 and January 2, use these channels in this order: message your usual Waymore coordinator (fastest, even on reduced days), email our shared operations inbox (checked daily, including December 25 and January 1 for urgent items), or use the contact form on our quote page, which routes to the duty coordinator when marked urgent. For time-critical issues — a vessel about to sail without your container, a customs hold, a damaged box — mark the message URGENT in the first line; the duty phone is monitored around the clock for exactly these cases.

One more thing worth saying: holiday coverage is also a test of any forwarder you work with. If your current provider goes dark for two weeks every December, our checklist of questions to ask a China freight forwarder includes this one for a reason — a forwarder that operates through the holidays is a forwarder that operates when your cargo actually needs it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Waymore Shipping open during Christmas and New Year?

Yes. Our Shenzhen, Ningbo and Shanghai teams work through the Christmas and New Year period. Only December 25 and January 1 run on reduced, urgent-only staffing with slower reply times; every other day operates on the normal schedule, including customs declarations, document handling and LCL consolidation at our warehouses.

Do container vessels keep sailing between Christmas and New Year?

Yes. Ocean services run on their published weekly schedules throughout the holidays — vessels load, depart and arrive on normal rotations. Chinese ports and export customs operate as usual. The slowdowns appear at the destination end, where warehouses, delivery networks and some customs offices close on December 25 and January 1.

What are the last shipping dates before Christmas?

Working backwards from arrival: cargo for North Europe needs to sail by around December 8–10; US East Coast by December 8–12; US West Coast by December 12–15; air express for a December 24 delivery generally must leave China by December 18–20. These assume normal customs clearance — always confirm the exact sailing cutoff with us for your specific vessel.

Will customs clear my cargo on December 25 or January 1?

Usually not. China export customs works through the holidays, but in the US, EU, UK and most other destinations, customs authorities generally do not process entries on December 25 or January 1. Documents filed on those days are typically processed the next business day, so plan arrivals and free time accordingly.

How do the holidays affect free time and storage fees?

Free time clocks keep running through holidays at most terminals — December 25 and January 1 count as regular days. A container arriving around December 20 with five free days can be accruing demurrage right when warehouses reopen slowly. Request extra free time in advance, or schedule arrivals for the first week of January when receiving is back to normal.