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Here's everything you need to make sure cards and pressies arrive for Christmas

Hopefully your Santa list went ages ago.

CHRISTMAS IS NEARLY upon us. Hopefully you were super organised and posted your Christmas cards and presents weeks ago.

santas coming Giphy Giphy

But if not – the last day to post Christmas cards within the Republic of Ireland to arrive in time for Christmas is tomorrow, 21 December 2016.

Last dates

Merry Christmas 2011 Lee Cannon Lee Cannon

If you want to send your letters and parcels by standard or registered post, tomorrow is absolutely the last day you can send them to arrive before Christmas. But if you use Express Post you get an extra day – you can use Express Post until 22 December 2016.

Get your letters there safely

shutterstock_163232024 Shutterstock / Laura Bartlett Shutterstock / Laura Bartlett / Laura Bartlett

It’s not just about posting your letters on time,  you also need to help An Post – who are dealing with up to 7.5 million items per day in the run up to Christmas – to make sure your letters and parcels arrive as quickly and easily as possible.

Here are some tips:

  • Write the address as clearly as possible in capital letters.
  • Always include a sender’s name and address in the top left hand corner of the item.
  • Make sure you have the correct postage for the destination, mail type and service.

Packaging presents

shutterstock_327654194 Shutterstock / aboikis Shutterstock / aboikis / aboikis

If you’re sending parcels through the post, here’s some advice on packaging them properly so they arrive in the best condition possible:

  • If there is more than one item in a package, wrap each separately.
  • Make sure there is enough padding to protect everything – shake to check items aren’t moving inside the parcel.
  • If posting delicate items, wrap each in bubble wrap and write FRAGILE on the parcel.
  • Use the correct tape. Do not use cellophane, masking tape, or string.

Letters to Santa

shutterstock_116295415 Shutterstock / Pressmaster Shutterstock / Pressmaster / Pressmaster

Hopefully you already got your letter off to Santa, but just in case you haven’t, remember:

  • Santa’s address is: Santa Claus, North Pole.
  • Use a 72c stamp.
  • Include your name and address for a reply if Santa has time.

Have you sent all your Christmas post yet? Let us know in the comments below.

Remember, tomorrow is the last day to send your Christmas post to the Republic of Ireland. Head to An Post now to calculate postage rates and everything else you need for your presents and cards to arrive safely. Merry Christmas!

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7 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Greg Rybak
    Favourite Greg Rybak
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    Sep 8th 2014, 1:34 PM

    Does it have ‘I’m feeling lucky’ setting?

    74
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute NoNeed4cryptoGreed
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    Sep 8th 2014, 12:57 PM

    Google everywhere. Not sure if we need gigantic companies involved in so many aspect of our life’s.

    45
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    Mute The Throwaway
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    Sep 8th 2014, 1:17 PM

    I think the horse has already bolted out of that door.
    Between smart phones alone there’s an incredible amount of data available to people to see how person lives their life. On the other side, there’s a raft of smart technologies out there for the home that are incredibly cheap; if you’re into that kind of thing.

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    Mute Dave Fingleton
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    Sep 8th 2014, 2:25 PM

    Its really depressing that we have such badly insulated and air porous houses and apartments that we need to add tech that turns heating systems on 15mins before getting home such is the massive heat loss.

    26
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    Mute John Moylan
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    Sep 8th 2014, 3:15 PM

    @Dave Fingleton…….and people are still building that way. It’s entirely possible to build better, and easy too. I quoted to build such for a scheme lately and I the feedback I got back (by email) was they (the developer) saw ‘no merit in the marketplace to build beyond minimum compliance’. Doesn’t that just tell you all ?

    33
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    Mute Dave Fingleton
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    Sep 8th 2014, 9:06 PM

    Very interesting, John. We don’t learn from past mistakes in this country, do we?? I totally agree with how easy it would be to build better houses. I am a builder, once offs, extensions / renovations. Nearly finished a 1600 sq’ house in Co.Laois. I use an insulated concrete form system. Underfloor heating off an air to water heat pump, Heat recovery ventilation, very close attention paid to airtightness. The projected heating cost for the house is 82 euro per year. All for not much more than 100 p/sq’ build cost. It can be done…

    8
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    Mute Seeking Truth
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    Sep 8th 2014, 3:16 PM

    Even better if your partner is home and you’re out, and you turn the heat down on your smartphone and they freeze their tail off and wonder why for ages before seeing that you remotely changed the heating. Works once, anyways LOL

    21
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    Mute Random_paddy
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    Sep 8th 2014, 1:19 PM

    heatmiser is far cheaper and no monthly subscription, if you are a competent DIYer and able to configure port forwarding on your router. Good iphone app too. http://www.heatmiser.com/index.php/thermostats/wifi-thermostat-series

    18
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    Mute lostintallaght
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    Sep 8th 2014, 1:30 PM

    Google integration is where the Nest could win though. Imagine a heating system that knows you are on your way home (thanks to Google tracking in your phone) and turns on the heating automatically when you 15 minutes from the house. That’s the future of the Nest – true integration that is fully automated, not reliant on connecting via an app or browser.

    Also, 95% of the people that will want this sort of technology won’t want to learn how to play with port forwarding on the router tbh. They’ll want it to be ultra straightforward.

    39
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    Mute Ciaran Lynch
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    Sep 8th 2014, 2:07 PM

    Nest doesnt require any monthly subscription??

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    Mute brian magee
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    Sep 8th 2014, 2:44 PM

    The tado does this already. Best would only be playing catch up if they added it .

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    Mute Sean
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    Sep 8th 2014, 8:22 PM

    Nowhere the same amount of features as nest though

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    Mute Sean
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    Sep 8th 2014, 8:27 PM

    Also nest isn’t a monthly subscription

    3
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    Mute brian magee
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    Sep 8th 2014, 8:35 PM

    Sean care to expand on what features you think the Tado or heatmiser is missing? neither of which are subscription.

    NESt does not support muiti zones liek the Heatmiser does. An as such it really is not suitabel for any modern heatign system installed in Ireland in th epast 15 years. you would need to buy a new NEST for each zone.

    Heatmiser supports multizones,

    1
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    Mute Ciaran Lynch
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    Sep 8th 2014, 2:12 PM

    Great product, have been using the thermostat a lot and i have to admit its pretty amazing.
    The product reviews say it all.
    Plus there is no data collected for google… which people seem to think.

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    Mute Stephen Gregg
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    Sep 8th 2014, 2:34 PM

    Interesting, are you using this in Ireland?

    5
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    Mute potatoman
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    Sep 8th 2014, 5:04 PM

    The nest thermostat looks cool. I like the idea of smart homes and appliances but I wonder how much it will cost to install… The nest smoke alarm was less impressive when first released. They had to recall it when they realised that the waving gesture that disables it while the customer is doing a grill/fry is actually very similar to the frantic wave for help they might make as their body burns to a crisp… It has been tweaked since (gesture control removed – http://www.cnet.com/news/nest-protect-smoke-detector-gets-an-upgrade-still-no-gesture-control/)

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    Mute Colm Flaherty
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    Sep 9th 2014, 2:56 PM

    Will it turn off the immersion?

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    Mute Thierry Rat
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    Sep 8th 2014, 4:47 PM

    Imagine if a company like google collected data about every minor detail of everyone’s life…. Wait a minute…

    4
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