Your Holiday Pre-Order Questions, Answered

Hi all!

If you've been here a while, you know this time of year is when things get wild for us. In the 4th quarter, each month is 5x what it is the rest of the year. Each year, we scale our systems to keep up (or even better, ahead), but each year y'all leave our meticulous planning in the dust.

To keep a handle on things for my team (aka do as much as humanly possible without burning anyone out!) and to make sure we don't make any promises we can't keep, here's how things work for the holiday season:

1. Our online shop is PRE-ORDER ONLY...

from November 1-24th. We spend these weeks stocking our wonderful retail partners. We add your orders to our production queue and then...

2. After Thanksgiving, we start shipping pre-orders out in the order they were received...

and we keep on making & shipping marshmallows through December 16th, our final ship date (a day ahead of USPS's holiday shipping deadline), or until we hit our production capacity. Whichever comes first.

3. If we're going to hit our production capacity...

we'll let our email list know 24 hours ahead of closing the store so folks can sneak in their orders at the last minute. I do NOT recommend waiting for this email, as marshmallows go FAST when it hits inboxes. Order early to make sure you get your holiday order in!

4. We take a winter break for the end of December...

We start production back up the first full week of January. The online store will be open for pre-orders while we are closed, and we'll start shipping again on January 11th.

Holiday FAQ

When will my order ship?

We start shipping after Thanksgiving and work through orders in the order they came in, so the earlier you order, the earlier yours goes out (you can shortcut this by choosing "Top of The Pile Shipping" at checkout, which moves you to the top of the fulfillment queue each day!). You'll get an email with tracking as soon as it's on its way. Our final ship date is December 16th.

Will it get there by Christmas?

Here's our promise: every holiday order ships by December 16th. That's ahead of the USPS holiday deadline (December 17th) and the UPS deadline (December 21st), and it's the part we control, so we take it seriously!

Once your package is in the mail, delivery is up to the carrier. 99% of our packages arrive with plenty of time to spare, but every year a few get caught in the holiday rush, even when they ship on time. If it absolutely has to be under the tree, order early or upgrade your shipping at checkout. 

Any other questions about this process!? Email us at hello@vermontmarshmallow.com. Otherwise, happiest, happiest holidays and thanks for working within our systems while this small business does big things.

Sweetly, Alexx