Not every holiday gift comes courtesy of Santa. For many of us, Christmas gifts come via delivery, with many people opting to use the U.S. Postal Service to make their gift-giving easier.

If you are one of those people, the USPS said there are some things you should do to make sure your package arrives.

One of the most basic things you can do is make sure your items are addressed property:

• Place the recipient’s address in the center with the name in the first line.
• On the second line, indicate the Post Office Box or street address, with apartment, suite or room number added on the same line, preferably with the words written out and not abbreviated. Directional words such as north, east, south, west may be required and abbreviations are acceptable.
• On the following line, be sure to add the city, state, and ZIP Code, ideally the ZIP+4 Code. You can use the ZIP code lookup on USPS.com.

You’re also required to put the sender’s address or return address. The return address should go in the upper left-hand corner of the letter or package, above and to the left of the recipient’s address.

READ MORE: When should I mail my holiday presents? Here are the US Postal Service 2023 deadlines

Writing matters

Most importantly, USPS said to make sure you write everything legibly when you’re mailing a package. Failure to do so can mean delays or even the inability to deliver your package.

“While the Postal Service uses highly sophisticated scanners that can decipher most handwriting, writing neatly will help prevent your mailpiece from becoming undelivered due to an illegible address,” USPS’s Jonathan Castillo wrote in a blog post.

When it comes to ink, you need to make good decisions there, too. Avoid red pen or ink that smears easily, USPS recommends and, when possible, type and print your labels. And, if you’re mailing a check, experts recommend using a gel pen to help protect it from “washing,”

Check-washing scams involve changing the payee names and often the dollar amounts on checks and fraudulently depositing them. Occasionally, the checks are stolen from mailboxes and washed in chemicals to remove the ink though some scammers even go as far as using copiers or scanners to print fake copies of the document.