ObservanceSunday, July 18, 2027
National Ice Cream Day
- Date
- Recurs
- The date changes each year. This page always shows the next one.
- Category
- Food
National Ice Cream Day falls on the third Sunday in July, and it is one of the few food holidays with a presidential signature behind it. Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5219 on July 9, 1984, naming July 1984 National Ice Cream Month and July 15 of that year National Ice Cream Day. The recurring third-Sunday rule, which is how the day is actually kept, is not in the proclamation.
History
Congress acted first. Proclamation 5219 states that "The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 298, has designated July 1984 as 'National Ice Cream Month,' and July 15, 1984, as 'National Ice Cream Day,'" and authorized and requested that the President issue a proclamation. Reagan signed it on July 9, 1984, calling on Americans "to observe these events with appropriate ceremonies and activities." The document makes its own case with numbers: ice cream "enjoyed by over ninety percent of the people in the United States," more than 887 million gallons consumed in 1983, roughly $3.5 billion in annual sales, and nearly ten percent of all milk produced by American dairy farmers going into ice cream.
Here is the part usually left out. The proclamation names one date, July 15, 1984, and nothing more. It contains no recurring rule — no "third Sunday," no "annually." July 15, 1984 happened to be the third Sunday of that month, and the third-Sunday pattern is how the observance has been kept since, by the dairy industry rather than by law. Both the Government Publishing Office's feature page and the International Dairy Foods Association describe the 1984 proclamation as having designated the third Sunday. The signed text does not.
Timeline
- 1744 — The first account of ice cream in the New World appears in a letter written by a guest of Maryland's Governor William Bladen.
- May 12, 1777 — The first American advertisement for ice cream runs in the New York Gazette, placed by the confectioner Philip Lenzi.
- 1851 — Jacob Fussell, a Baltimore milk dealer, pioneers ice cream manufacturing as an American industry.
- 1904 — At the St. Louis World's Fair, Ernest A. Hamwi rolls a waffle-like zalabis pastry into a cone for an ice cream vendor who has run out of dishes.
- July 9, 1984 — Reagan signs Proclamation 5219, designating July 1984 as National Ice Cream Month and July 15, 1984 as National Ice Cream Day, at the request of Congress under Senate Joint Resolution 298.
- 2025 — American manufacturers produce 1.23 billion gallons of ice cream.
How to observe
Read Proclamation 5219. It runs to a few paragraphs, it is free at the Reagan Library and at the American Presidency Project, and it is a tidy specimen of the genre: a federal document arguing by statistic that a dessert deserves a month of national attention.
Note which figures are current and which are from 1983. The proclamation's numbers are four decades old. The International Dairy Foods Association's own current accounting puts 2025 US production at 1.23 billion gallons and per-capita consumption at roughly 18 pounds a year, against the more than 23 pounds the same association reported with its 2017 figures, on a basis it does not reconcile. Any "Americans eat X pounds of ice cream" claim you meet in July is worth tracing to its year.
And if you only want the ice cream: the third Sunday in July is when the deals land, not July 15.
Frequently asked questions
When is National Ice Cream Day?
The third Sunday in July. That rule is not in the 1984 proclamation, which named only July 15, 1984. It is the convention that has been kept since, and the U.S. Government Publishing Office describes the day the same way.
Did Ronald Reagan create National Ice Cream Day?
He signed it, but Congress asked for it. Proclamation 5219 states that it was issued at the request of Congress under Senate Joint Resolution 298, which had itself designated both the month and the day.
Is National Ice Cream Month the same thing?
They came out of the same document. Proclamation 5219 designated July 1984 as National Ice Cream Month and July 15, 1984 as National Ice Cream Day. As with the day, the month's annual recurrence is convention rather than text.
How much ice cream do Americans actually eat?
The International Dairy Foods Association currently puts it at roughly 18 pounds, or about 4 gallons, per person per year, with 2025 production at 1.23 billion gallons. The same association reported more than 23 pounds alongside its 2017 figures. Neither per-capita number carries a stated year, and the association does not reconcile them, so treat any single figure with care.
Is National Ice Cream Day a federal holiday?
No. A presidential proclamation of this kind is ceremonial. Nothing closes, and no one gets the day off.
When is National Ice Cream Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | July 18 | Sunday |
| 2028 | July 16 | Sunday |
| 2029 | July 15 | Sunday |
| 2030 | July 21 | Sunday |
| 2031 | July 20 | Sunday |
Sources
- The American Presidency Project, Proclamation 5219 — National Ice Cream Month and National Ice Cream Day, 1984 — https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-5219-national-ice-cream-month-and-national-ice-cream-day-1984 → the full proclamation text; the July 9, 1984 signing; Senate Joint Resolution 298 as the congressional request; the designation of July 1984 and of July 15, 1984, and the absence of any recurring rule in the text; over ninety percent of Americans; more than 887 million gallons consumed in 1983; approximately $3.5 billion in annual sales; nearly ten percent of US milk production.
- Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Proclamations, July 9, 1984 — https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/proclamations-july-9-1984 → the same proclamation text from the presidential archive, confirming the July 9, 1984 date and the signature, alongside Proclamation 5218 signed the same day.
- U.S. Government Publishing Office, National Ice Cream Day — https://www.govinfo.gov/features/national-ice-cream-day → the federal government's own characterization of the day as the third Sunday of July, designated by Reagan on July 9, 1984; the ninety percent and 887 million gallon figures. Note the conflict with the proclamation text itself, which names only July 15, 1984.
- International Dairy Foods Association, IDFA and the Dairy Industry Celebrate National Ice Cream Month — https://www.idfa.org/news/idfa-and-the-dairy-industry-celebrate-national-ice-cream-month-with-release-of-new-ice-cream-data-and-trends → the trade association's statement that Reagan designated the third Sunday of July; 2017 production of about 1.4 billion gallons of ice cream and related frozen desserts; more than 23 pounds per person.
- International Dairy Foods Association, Ice Cream Sales and Trends — https://www.idfa.org/news-views/media-kits/ice-cream/ice-cream-sales-trends → 2025 US production of 1.23 billion gallons; roughly 18 pounds, or about 4 gallons, per person; an $11.6 billion economic impact, 26,704 direct jobs and $1.9 billion in direct wages.
- International Dairy Foods Association, The History of Ice Cream — https://www.idfa.org/news-views/media-kits/ice-cream/the-history-of-ice-cream/ → the 1744 letter from a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen; the May 12, 1777 New York Gazette advertisement placed by Philip Lenzi; Jacob Fussell of Baltimore pioneering ice cream manufacturing in 1851.
- International Dairy Foods Association, The History of the Ice Cream Cone — https://www.idfa.org/news-views/media-kits/ice-cream/the-history-of-the-ice-cream-cone → Ernest A. Hamwi's zalabis cone at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair; Italo Marchiony's 1896 cone and December 1903 patent.
Rejected as sources: nationaltoday, nationaldaycalendar, checkiday, timeanddate, and the content-farm pages that state the third-Sunday rule as the proclamation's own wording.
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