Your holiday haul needs a ride home. Here's how to decide if it's better to ship or check your stuff.

Traveling for the holidays this year? Whether you're packing gifts to tuck underneath the tree at a Christmas party or hitting up the Black Friday sales with your family once you arrive at your destination, traveling during the holiday season can present unique challenges. 

Maybe you're trying to avoid lugging multiple suitcases through the airport when you already have your hands full with kids and pets. Or, perhaps, you're trying to find the best way to get a thick winter coat (plus a bunch of delicate gifts) to Boston when you live in Florida. Perhaps you just want to get everything from your departure to your destination without spending a small fortune on checked bags. 

The good news is you have options. Here's what to consider when you're deciding how to travel with extra baggage during the holidays.

What to know if you're checking a bag 

Say you're planning to bring gifts to your family for the holidays. Should you just take them with you in a suitcase, even if it means checking an extra bag — or two? 

There are some perks to checking luggage. While bags can get mishandled or lost, your bags will, at least in theory, travel on the same flight as you. 

The cost to check your luggage also depends on how much you're bringing. On most U.S. airlines, your first checked bag on a domestic flight will cost between $45 and $50 each way, and it's typically cheaper to confirm your checked bag online in advance than to pay for it at the airport. Your second checked bag is usually more expensive (about $55 to $60). The price increases significantly after your second bag, with airlines charging $150 to $200 per additional checked bag. 

Plus, bag fees are subject to change at any moment. JetBlue just increased its checked bag fees for the second time this year. United, Delta, American, Southwest, Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines also increased their checked bag fees this year. 

The good news? For people with airline credit cards or elite airline status, some of these fees may be waived. 

But you can't just shove everything into the biggest suitcase you own without paying for it. A checked bag on most major U.S. airlines must weigh 50 pounds or less and measure 62 linear inches or less (that's length plus width plus height, including handles and wheels) before you'll incur extra fees.

Oversize or overweight bag charges can cost up to $200 per bag on domestic flights, in addition to standard bag-checking fees. 

If you think you'll only need an extra checked suitcase one way of your trip — say, when you're coming home with a bunch of new presents — pack a "soft-sided, very small, foldable bag option" within another suitcase, says Brett Snyder, founder and author of airline industry blog Cranky Flier . This way, you can check an extra bag on just one direction of your trip if you need. 

When you should consider an alternative 

If you tend to get to the airport late, you may want to avoid checking bags. Usually, you'll need to drop off your bags at least 45 minutes before departure in order to get your luggage on the plane — and for some airlines and destinations, that cutoff can be even longer, so be sure to check the specifics of your flight ahead of time. 

Plus, if you're bringing a lot of stuff, you may be restricted from checking all your bags due to space constraints. 

Bringing wrapped gifts? That could be an issue too, Snyder tells Yahoo Travel, as security can unwrap your gift if they believe they see something concerning during the screening process. 

"You're going to have to figure out what to do with that," he says, "because they're definitely not going to rewrap it for you."

What to know if you want to ship your luggage

Sally French, NerdWallet travel expert and cohost of the Smart Travel Podcast , tells Yahoo Travel that, due to fuel costs, shipping packages tends to be more expensive than taking the same amount of stuff with you in checked luggage. But that doesn't mean checking a bag is always the most convenient option. 

"It can be worth it purely to avoid hassle," she says. "If you're traveling with family, you may not want to worry about wrangling kids and suitcases in a busy airport. It gives you the flexibility to change flights, a common scenario during winter weather, because you'll be traveling light, sans suitcase." 

She also notes that it can be helpful to ship items you would have put in luggage if you're on a multi-stop trip, when you won't need part of it for the first half of the trip and don't want to lug it around. That could include holiday gifts.

If you're looking to ship things, you can get flat-rate boxes from FedEx, UPS and USPS, among others. Rates vary depending on how fast and how far you want to ship an item, plus its size. 

One thing to consider, however, is that you may end up paying more to ship items around the holidays, which may impact the price of even flat-rate boxes, depending upon the service you use. 

"Holiday surcharges are the big one this year," Christopher Elliott, a consumer advocate and founder of The Elliott Report , tells Yahoo Travel. "The Postal Service raised Ground Advantage and Priority Mail prices an average of 6% from Oct. 4 through Jan. 17. UPS and FedEx added peak residential surcharges for late November through late December."

Plus, Elliott says, "the tradeoff with shipping is time and risk." 

"Ground service is slow, and a box left on a porch in December can disappear," he says. "With a checked bag, you pay more for heavy loads, but the stuff arrives when you do."

When to try a luggage shipping service 

If you want to pack your stuff in a suitcase but skip taking it to the airport, there are services that will do that too, such as Lugless, Luggage Free, ShipGo and Send My Bag. 

These services may offer a lower cost than shipping items individually, though price depends on factors including the route, weight and size of the suitcase and the date you need it delivered. Depending on the specific service you choose, these luggage shipping services may offer door-to-door pickup and delivery, assistance with customs and other paperwork and delivery monitoring. 

And the discounts can be significant, sometimes less than the cost of shipping a suitcase yourself or checking it with your airline. 

"When you check bags with an airline, you typically pay more for each additional bag," Audrey Kohout, co-CEO of Lugless, tells Yahoo Travel. "Each bag costs the same with us, so the more you ship, the more you save."

Shipping a suitcase the size of a checked bag with Lugless can cost as little as $32 for a short distance, such as New York City to Boston. But for a long-haul trip, that price can go up to $229 (think: New York City to Los Angeles). 

How to cut down on the baggage

If you're stressed about packing a lot for your travels, one easy way to avoid the hassle is to have the items you need delivered straight to your accommodation. If, for example, you're stressed about packing a holiday party outfit or a heavy winter coat, it might be helpful to rent those items and have them sent directly to where you'll be spending the holidays. For that, look into services like Nuuly, FashionPass or Rent the Runway. 

Gifts can also be shipped directly to your destination or ordered for pickup at a nearby store. Some retailers, including Amazon, even offer gift wrapping on eligible items. 

Snyder notes that there's another bonus to having gifts sent directly from a retailer: If the item never shows up or arrives damaged, you can speak with the company about a replacement immediately. That's often easier than working with a travel insurance provider or airline.