Maycember
/may-SEM-ber/noun
Meaning
The month of May, or the late-spring stretch around it, when school events, sports, ceremonies, work deadlines, holidays, and summer planning pile up with December-like intensity. Maycember is usually used humorously by parents, teachers, and caregivers to describe a calendar that is packed but lacks December’s holidays, gifts, and built-in downtime.[1][2][3][4][5]
- 1. The unusually busy month of May, especially for families with school-aged children.
- 2. The general state of end-of-school-year scheduling chaos, including the overlapping events and obligations associated with May.
Examples
“Maycember has entered the group chat, and nobody has a free weekend.”
“I survived Maycember, but my calendar did not.”
“Between concerts, finals, and camp forms, this is peak Maycember.”
“Maycember means three field trips, two banquets, and zero blank evenings.”
“Can we move the meeting? I’m fully booked with Maycember.”
Origin and spread
Maycember is a blend of May and December, comparing May’s crowded end-of-school-year schedule with December’s holiday-season rush. The earliest documented use located is a May 13, 2016 post by the Holderness Family titled “May is the new December,” which ends with the hashtag #Maycember and lists sports banquets, class parties, field trips, teacher gifts, and summer-childcare planning. The Holderness Family later described the term directly in a May 2, 2023 post, and a 2023 article about their “September” parody helped bring the expression to a broader parenting audience. News coverage in 2024 treated Maycember as a recognizable label for the month’s school and family obligations.[3][4]
How to use it
Maycember is informal, playful, and often self-deprecating rather than genuinely negative. It is most natural in family, parenting, school, workplace, and social-media contexts. The term usually points to a temporary seasonal rush, not to May as a uniformly stressful month for everyone. It can also be used as a modifier, as in Maycember schedule or Maycember energy.
Sources
- 1. The Holderness Family — May is the new December | #MaycemberSupports: meaning, form.
- 2. The Holderness Family — Happy Maycember (And Your Advice)Supports: meaning.
- 3. Calendar — How to Survive ‘Maycember’Supports: meaning, origin.
- 4. Upworthy — Parents see their lives in hilariously relatable end-of-school-year ‘Maycember’ parodySupports: meaning, origin.
- 5. News Channel 3-12 / CNN — How to survive ‘Maycember’ in three almost-easy stepsSupports: meaning.
