While Santa prepares for his big night, his elves are already hard at work, only now, they're wearing uniforms instead of pointy hats. Belize's fast growing courier industry is now a key element of the gift giving season. With gifts coming from all over the country, courier services shuttle an increasing volume of packages from north to south - and they have to deliver "to time". Jaleeza Roberts spoke to a few of the service providers:

Across the country, delivery services are powering through the Christmas Eve rush, replacing chimneys with office doors and reindeer-led sleighs with scooters, vans, and delivery trucks. Christmas remains one of the busiest commercial periods of the year, and the last-minute scramble for the perfect gift has become a familiar scene. With stores packed and time running out, courier services have become the backbone of modern holiday shopping, racing against the clock to ensure packages reach their destinations before Christmas morning. We spoke to the Manager of Inter District Shipping Belize who explained that this time of the year is most hectic but the company has adapted.

Henry Arevalo, Manager - IDS Belize

"Well, it has been very crazy. Honestly, this is my first year with the company and we were trying to plan as much as we can to be ready for Christmas with (0:45) trucks, employees, runman's at all offices, but it has been very crazy. We're trying as much as we can and our best to get all the packages delivered on time. That's why we posted different memos on our page so that customers are aware about the different cutoff times, how to get their packages, if anything, who to call, and so forth. We're trying our best. I mean, it's a lot of packages, so we might, I don't know if we might miss one here and there, but we're trying really hard to have all packages delivered or at the office as how the customers stated."

Jaleeza Roberts-
"Okay, and how has it been with the to-door service? Because I know you guys offer a service where you drop it off to wherever the persons are. So how has that been?"

Henry Arevalo, Manager - IDS Belize
"Okay, for today, to be specific for today, we cut off on some deliveries because we cannot be able to do all the deliveries to all the customers. And the thing is, we try to take a little safety measures, like depending how far the location is, we want all of our employees to reach on a time, in a certain time, home. Because I mean, it's,you know, they want to spend with their families and we take all of that into consideration."

From bulky gifts like this children's motorcycle, to cake, to electronics to clothing and last-minute surprises, everything must move before midnight onChristmas eve.

The surge in online shopping has reshaped how consumers shop for the holidays, making courier services a central part of the Christmas experience. Lance Zabaneh, owner of Bel South Shipping connects Belize to the American market and he says his day is far from finished.

Lance Zabaneh, Owner - Belsouth
"Really, really crunch time. I tell you, my phone musi di ring inna my car right now. People are calling me for their deliveries and things. And I just try to make sure everybody have a happy Christmas, you know."

Cj:
"Yes, man. So, tell me how you cope with this situation. You only have one truck to run or you have multiple?"

Lance Zabaneh, Owner - Belsouth
"Well, right now, I have my boys di unload da Belmopan. I di head down back to Belmopan. Gwen da Belmopan right now. I'm going to deliver from there. Then, I got another team going down south and hopefully everything get done."

That's the sense of urgency for these modern-day elves - furiously busy on Christmas Eve. Jaleeza Roberts, 7 News