WACO, Texas (Fox 44) — December is here, and that means the holidays are right around the corner. But for the post office, that means the busiest time of the year.

Harvey Meredith’s son is a mail carrier, so he came to the post office today to send him a gift he can use at work.

“I’m picking up a box so I can mail a couple of thermos jugs to my son so he can have a coffee or a hot chocolate, whatever he’d like on the job because it’s a long day,” Meredith said.

Bret Watkins is the Waco Postmaster and says postal employees work countless hours, and one way to help them is to turn your porch light on if you’re expecting a package.

“It’s a safety issue for us as well for your packages,” Watkins said. “So it’s not sitting in the dark, so that would help us out a lot.”

Also, remember the deadlines to make sure your mail or package arrives by Christmas day. You can find those listed here.

“Our team is out working countless hours,” Watkins said. “Like I said before, they start early in the morning before dark, and they’re delivering up to and after dark in the evening to make sure we have a productive holiday delivery schedule and the customers get their packages and mail timely.”

One way to beat the lines at the post office is to take advantage of Click-N-ship where you print your own label, and your carrier will pick it up for you.

“Your regular carrier will do a pickup for you, which helps you avoid the line,” Watkins said. “Obviously, during a holiday season, the lines are quite long, so that would eliminate that for a customer.”

Meredith said his son delivered 163 packages and worked from 6 a.m. to almost 9 p.m last night. He says the postal workers are tough.

“They have a full time job, I’ll tell you that,” Meredith said. “And they have to put up with a few dogs here and there and snow, you know, and wind and a lot of things that they have to endure.”