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When is National Ice Cream Month?

National Ice Cream Month celebrates all ice cream and runs for the whole of July, from July 1 to July 31.

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All of July

Proclaimed in 1984

National Ice Cream Month is a celebration of all ice cream that runs for the whole of July, from July 1 to July 31.

It is official. Congress designated it in a joint resolution approved July 2, 1984, and President Ronald Reagan proclaimed it on July 9, 1984. Those texts named July 1984 only, and IDFA and National Day Calendar describe it as observed every July since.

Proclaimed in 1984. Official: named by a joint resolution of Congress and by Proclamation 5219, signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Simple ways to mark the month

  • Plan a July ice cream social at work or school, and use the Scoop Planner to work out how many pints, quarts or gallons to buy.
  • Set up a sundae bar for friends or family, and let the Scoop Planner tell you how much of each topping you need.
  • Check the ice cream price tracker before you shop to see the recent U.S. average price of a half gallon.
  • Share a few numbers from the U.S. ice cream statistics page in a class lesson, newsletter or social post during July.
  • Read the history of ice cream page together and talk about why no single person invented it.

Where the month comes from

National Ice Cream Month is an official, proclaimed observance. Congress designated July 1984 as National Ice Cream Month in Senate Joint Resolution 298, which became Public Law 98-333 when it was approved on July 2, 1984. President Ronald Reagan then proclaimed it in Proclamation 5219, signed July 9, 1984. Those texts named July 1984 only. They did not set the month for the years after that. IDFA and National Day Calendar describe the month as observed every July since.

The paper trail is short and clear. Congress.gov lists Senator Walter (Dee) Huddleston of Kentucky as the sponsor of S.J.Res. 298, introduced May 17, 1984, and notes that it passed both chambers by voice vote. GovInfo shows the proclamation published in the Federal Register at 49 FR 28231 on July 11, 1984. It asked the people of the United States to mark the month and the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

The proclamation also gave its own figures for context, as The American Presidency Project records. It cited more than 887 million gallons of ice cream eaten in the United States in 1983, about $3.5 billion in annual sales, and nearly 10 percent of U.S. milk used for ice cream. Those numbers describe the early 1980s, not today.

Questions people ask

When is National Ice Cream Month?

National Ice Cream Month runs for all of July, from July 1 to July 31. The 1984 texts named July 1984 only, and IDFA and National Day Calendar describe the month as observed every July since then.

Is National Ice Cream Month an official holiday?

Yes, it is an official observance. Senate Joint Resolution 298 became Public Law 98-333 on July 2, 1984, and President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the month in Proclamation 5219 on July 9, 1984. Those texts covered July 1984 only.

Who started National Ice Cream Month?

Congress and President Ronald Reagan created it. Congress.gov records that Senator Walter (Dee) Huddleston of Kentucky sponsored S.J.Res. 298, introduced May 17, 1984. It passed both chambers by voice vote, and Reagan signed Proclamation 5219 on July 9, 1984.

What did the 1984 proclamation ask people to do?

It asked the people of the United States to observe the month and the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. That wording comes from the proclamation as published in the Federal Register on July 11, 1984, which also named National Ice Cream Day.

Sources

  1. Proclamation 5219, National Ice Cream Month and National Ice Cream Day, 1984 The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara
  2. Federal Register, Vol. 49, No. 134, July 11, 1984, p. 28231 (Proclamation 5219, PDF) U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo)
  3. 98 Stat. 290, Public Law 98-333 (S.J.Res. 298), July 2, 1984 (PDF) U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo)
  4. S.J.Res. 298, 98th Congress (1983-1984) Congress.gov, Library of Congress
  5. Proclamations, July 9, 1984 Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
  6. July is National Ice Cream Month International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)
  7. National Ice Cream Month (July) National Day Calendar

Every data source the site uses is on the Sources page.

More ice cream days

The full calendar, with a month view of July