Holiday Calendar

National Ice Cream Month

Next celebratedWednesday, July 1, 2026

A month-long observance held across July in the United States celebrating ice cream and the people who make it.

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Last updated February 9, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEAll of July
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYFood
SUBCATEGORYIce Cream
ORIGIN

Government Proclamation

FOUNDING ENTITY
U.S. Government (President Ronald Reagan, by Proclamation 5219)
FIRST OBSERVED
1984
“Reagan signed Proclamation 5219 on July 9, 1984, naming July National Ice Cream Month.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The summer a president put ice cream in the federal record.

On July 9, 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5219, naming July National Ice Cream Month at the request of Congress, which had passed Senate Joint Resolution 298 asking him to issue it. The same document set the third Sunday of July as National Ice Cream Day.

View Proclamationvia Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
INTRO

The month a president signed for ice cream

In the summer of 1984, the United States government went on the record with an opinion about dessert. A presidential proclamation declared ice cream "a nutritious and wholesome food, enjoyed by over ninety percent of the people in the United States." That sentence now carries a proclamation number.

National Ice Cream Month is the result: all of July, set aside by the federal government for a frozen treat. It is easy to confuse with National Ice Cream Day, but they are not the same thing. The day is the third Sunday in July; the month is the whole of it.

The story behind that signature runs deeper than a sweet tooth, through wartime morale, a world's fair, and an industry that still leans family-owned.

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ORIGINS

Ice Cream Month history

INTRODUCTION

Americans were eating ice cream long before any president thought to formalize it. The dessert sat on some of the country's earliest important tables, a luxury that slowly became an everyday habit.

By the twentieth century it had become something closer to a national reflex, and the path from elite novelty to federal proclamation is a story with three distinct chapters.

CHAPTER 01

A dessert for founders and presidents

Ice cream was a fixture in early American life well above the average household. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both served it, and it appeared as a dessert at James Madison's inaugural ball in 1813.

Then the technology of cold caught up with the appetite. At the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, a Syrian vendor named Ernest Hamwi rolled a thin pastry into a cone to help a neighboring ice cream seller who had run out of dishes, and the portable scoop was born.

CHAPTER 02

A weapon made of cream

By the Second World War, ice cream had become a matter of national morale. The United States manufactured roughly 80 million gallons a year for the armed forces alone.

The Navy took it seriously enough to send ice cream to sea. It converted a concrete barge into a floating creamery that could store nearly 2,000 gallons, a refrigerated vessel built for no purpose but keeping sailors in dessert.

CHAPTER 03

The proclamation

Congress moved first. In 1984 it passed Senate Joint Resolution 298, sponsored in the House by Representative Kika de la Garza of Texas and in the Senate by Senator Walter Huddleston of Kentucky, asking the president to mark the occasion.

On July 9, 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5219, naming July National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday National Ice Cream Day. The proclamation spoke only to 1984; the annual return of the month is a tradition the industry has carried ever since.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Ice Cream Month

INDUSTRY

Most American ice cream makers are family businesses over 50 years old.

Most U.S. ice cream and frozen-dessert makers are family-owned businesses that have operated for more than 50 years, and together they support more than 26,704 direct jobs, according to the International Dairy Foods Association. The month is as much about those makers as the dessert.

SEASON

July is peak season for making it, not just eating it

The busiest stretch for U.S. ice cream production runs March through September, with July near its peak, per the IDFA. The proclamation landed on the month when the churns are already running hardest.

CULTURE

Almost nobody opts out

In a 2024 IDFA survey with Morning Consult, 97 percent of Americans said they love or like ice cream, with vanilla still the country's most popular flavor. Few foods come close to that kind of near-universal agreement.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Ice Cream Month by the Numbers

$11.6B
Industry impact on US economy
~18 lbs
Ice cream eaten per American yearly
887M
Gallons eaten in the US in 1983

TIMELINE

Timeline

Ice cream at Madison's ball

The dessert is served at President James Madison's inaugural ball, an early White House appearance.

The cone takes shape

Vendor Ernest Hamwi popularizes the rolled-pastry ice cream cone at the St. Louis World's Fair.

Ice cream goes to war

The US makes about 80 million gallons a year for the armed forces, and the Navy commissions a floating creamery.

Reagan signs Proclamation 5219

Congress passes Senate Joint Resolution 298 and the president names July National Ice Cream Month.

A billion-gallon year

US ice cream makers produce 1.23 billion gallons in a single year, four decades after the proclamation made July its month.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Ice Cream Month

EDITOR'S PICK

Make a batch from scratch

Try a no-churn recipe or break out an ice cream maker for a custard base. Pick a flavor you have never made and see if it beats the carton.

VISIT

Visit a local family creamery

Seek out an independent, family-run shop rather than a chain. Many of these makers have run the same recipes for decades, which is exactly what the month honors.

HOST

Host a build-your-own sundae bar

Set out a few flavors, hot fudge and caramel, and a row of toppings. Let everyone assemble their own and compare combinations.

MARK

Mark National Ice Cream Day on the calendar

Save the third Sunday of July for the single biggest day inside the month. It is the headline event of an otherwise month-long celebration.

READ

Read the actual 1984 proclamation

Pull up the text President Reagan signed and see how the federal government described a frozen dessert. It is a short, surprisingly earnest piece of writing.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Ice Cream Month?

1 / 8

Which president signed the proclamation that created National Ice Cream Month?

Answer

No. It is a national observance created by a 1984 presidential proclamation, not a federal day off, so businesses and government offices stay open.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

7sources
3primary records
6independently dated
Primary records
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library1984
Proclamations, July 9, 1984
The full primary text of Reagan's Proclamation 5219 from the issuing authority's own archive.
View source
The American Presidency Project1984
Proclamation 5219, National Ice Cream Month and National Ice Cream Day, 1984
Verbatim proclamation text with its 1983 consumption and sales figures and the July designation.
View source
GovInfo (U.S. Government Publishing Office)
National Ice Cream Day
A federal summary of the proclamation that quotes its language and notes the third-Sunday pattern.
View source
Additional coverage
U.S. National Archives2022
NARA Screams for Ice Cream! National Ice Cream Month
Archives history covering the resolution's sponsors, founding-era ice cream, wartime production, and the cone.
View source
International Dairy Foods Association2025
July is National Ice Cream Month
The trade body's profile of the industry's economic impact, jobs, and family-owned character.
View source
International Dairy Foods Association2025
Ice Cream Sales and Trends
U.S. production volume, per-person consumption, and the March-through-September peak season.
View source
International Dairy Foods Association2024
What's the Scoop? IDFA Releases New Ice Cream Trends Survey
The 2024 survey naming vanilla the top flavor and finding 97 percent of Americans like ice cream.
View source
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