’Twas the day before Christmas, and all over the region, people scurried about to celebrate the season.

Snow melted on the sides of roads as people drove down Interstate 540 Tuesday on their way to holiday destinations. Traffic moved at the speed limit — or above — with no delays between Springdale and Bella Vista.

Marsha Day, 63, stopped at the Arkansas Welcome Center on U.S. 71 in Bella Vista with her husband and dog. They were driving their motor coach from their home in Peoria, Ill., to Texas for the winter, Day said. They planned to stop in Stilwell, Okla., to celebrate Christmas with family.

Day said there was less traffic than she expected.

“We traveled yesterday, and it wasn’t bad at all,” she said. “It’s colder than we expected.”

Snow fell in Northwest Arkansas on Monday, but Day said they didn’t have any problems with the roads. Most of it was already melted into puddles of water.

“The roads have been excellent,” she said.

While the Days drove, University of Arkansas student Angel Portero planned on relaxing during a five-hour ride. She arrived at the Jefferson Lines Bus Depot in Fayetteville at 10:45 a.m. on Christmas Eve, two days after the transmission of her car broke down and 2 1/2 hours before her bus was set to depart. She checked her ticket and her bag with depot manager Alan Reed to make sure everything was ready before going to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Portero would arrive at the Jonesboro depot early in the evening, where family would meet her for the rest of the trip to her mother’s house in east Arkansas.

“It’s as cheap to ride the bus as it is to buy gas to drive there,” Portero said, citing a total cost of about $70. “It’s relaxing. You don’t worry about driving. Arkansas’ natural beauty is nice, but you get used to it. After the first couple of times you take the trip, you just want to get there and would rather ride.”

North Arkansas’ roads are notoriously difficult to traverse.

Does the length of the trip, with its stop in Fort Smith, bother her? Portero broke into a smile as she replied, “I rode the bus to school here from California.”

Northwest Arkansas has people from all over the country, and he can really see that when at the bus station, Reed said. “Washington, D.C., Phoenix, New Orleans — several to New Orleans,” he said.

“This December was as big a month as we’ve ever had,” Reed said. “We had huge, huge numbers in the second and third week of this month, since you can save the most money if you plan ahead.”

About 25 people left this depot each day in the first week of December, traveling to all corners of the country. By this week, the customers coming in were traveling to closer destinations, mostly within the state.

“I have one customer I know who owns a brand new Mercedes,” Reed said. “She takes the bus to her family in Kansas City because she doesn’t want to be out driving that far.”

While some travelers stuck to the roads, others chose the sky. Naomi Laubler of Fayetteville was at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill on Tuesday to fly to Hartford, Conn., to spend Christmas with her daughter. She usually travels Christmas Eve and hasn’t had trouble with the flights.

“We’ve never had a problem, really, except one time the plane was delayed so they could de-ice the plane,” she said.

Christmas Eve is generally not a large travel day for Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, said Kelly Johnson, airport director. The airport is normally busy with business people on weekdays, but not on holidays. Most travelers fly through the airport before Christmas Eve.

“We don’t see a big jump in numbers,” she said.

Other people in the area scrambled to do last-minute shopping and even bought items for next year.

Nanci Green of Bentonville came out of The Perfect Choice, at 1406 S. Walton Blvd., Suite 10, in Bentonville, with a couple bags of Christmas decorations. She was drawn to the store because of a 50 percent off all Christmas items sale. She already had finished shopping for this year.

“This is just purely for next year’s Christmas,” she said.

Shelia Keene of Rogers was one of many browsing inside the store. She did most of her shopping last week, but just one more purchase remained: a scarf for her granddaughter.

Keene, who has been shopping at The Perfect Choice for about 10 years, took advantage of the sale, too.

“Since I’m here and since they’re half price, I thought I’d pick an ornament out as well,” she said.

The Bentonville post office wasn’t any busier than it had been the past two weeks, said Jeremy Coffey, postmaster.

“We’ve seen an increase in packages really over the last two weeks,” he said. “We’re seeing that continue through today.”

Most people mailed their packages before Christmas Eve, so there were fewer people coming in to send gifts, Coffey said. The last two Mondays before Christmas are typically the busiest.

An estimated 7,000 packages are delivered each day between the week after Thanksgiving and Christmas from the post office at 1706 S. Walton Blvd., Coffey said. There was an increase in overnight shipping this week. Between 2,000 and 3,000 packages are normally delivered to local residents on a nonseasonal day, he said.

“Yesterday we saw an increase in overnight (shipping), and today we’ll get a few, but after Christmas at that point they don’t overnight it,” he said. “They just send it the cheapest possible way.”

Tracy Neal and Melissa Gute also contributed to this report.