BATON ROUGE - Millions of packages are being shipped to their destinations this holiday season.

The United States Postal Service expects to process and deliver three billion pieces of First-Class Mail this week. It also expects to deliver nearly 200 million packages this week. To keep up with the large volume of mail, the Postal Service has hired seasonal workers and has been delivering packages on Sundays.

Tuesday was the last day to ship First-Class to make sure packages arrive in time for Christmas.

Kim Trosclair visited the downtown Baton Rouge post office Tuesday afternoon to send out a package to her daughter in Delaware. She told WBRZ she'd pay whatever the cost to get the package there before the weekend.

"As long as it arrives before Christmas," said Trosclair.

The Postmaster Sarah Augustine says to get it there by Christmas, First-Class is not an option. Now customers are looking at Priority shipping or Express from here on out to get their packages delivered on time.

"The closer you get to Christmas Day, Express Mail is going to be the only way to go to make sure the packages and presents get home," said Augustine.

So far, the holiday shipping season has been a busy one with a 10 percent increase in package volume from last year.

"All the offices are current with getting everything out every day, everything's getting delivered every day," said Augustine. "It's going really well."

While it may have cost a bundle to ship, Trosclair has peace of mind that her daughter's gift will arrive in time.

No extra hours are scheduled at the post office this week in Baton Rouge. Customers can still ship express on Friday to get their packages to its destination in time for Christmas.