UPS ruins Christmas for many -- are you affected?

For a longtime, I was a last-minute shopper. You could find me on Christmas Eve, picking through the remaining greeting cards and scrambling to buy gifts. However, as I got older, I learned to finish my shopping early to avoid the stress.

Unfortunately, delays by UPS have caused some last-minute gift deliveries to miss their Christmas Eve deadline. But who is to blame, UPS or the last-minute shoppers?

"UPS understands the importance of your holiday shipments. UPS is experiencing heavy holiday volume and making every effort to get packages to their destination; however, the volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network immediately preceding Christmas so some shipments were delayed. UPS is not making pickups or deliveries on Christmas Day and will resume normally scheduled service on December 26", says the company.

UPS released the following tweet:

UPS @UPS

[SERVICE UPDATE] We're experiencing heavy holiday volume & making every effort to get packages to their destination. 

Below are a few angry customers' tweets to UPS:

Phylis Neuman ‏@MissCommentCard 

@UPS lies - employees not doing their job so they can get home. Pkgs sitting in San Diego because driver was late per UPS #fail

Dank Max ‏@dankemon

@UPS Hey so all my sh** was guaranteed to be here today but it's in Kentucky now. So I'll look like an idiot tomorrow when I have nothing

Christy Hogue ‏@christyhogue

@UPS you suck! My package was supposed to be here last friday and it says its out for delivery today and STILL haven't gotten it! #youSUCK

Not exactly the Christmas spirit...

Sure, it will be disappointing for a child's Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS or iPad Mini to not be under the tree on Christmas morning. However, it is important to put things into perspective -- waiting an extra day for a gift will not ruin your child's holiday. If anything, it gives you an opportunity to teach them about patience and misplaced priorities.

Yes, UPS is in the wrong; it made a mistake. But let us not forget that the delivery men have families too. Expecting them to deliver on Christmas -- to sacrifice theirs for your, is rather selfish. Next year, don't wait for the last minute and finish your shopping early, OK?

Image Credit: Minerva Studio / Shutterstock