3rd of December / Heather Day

Overview

The 3rd of December, also known as Heather Day on TikTok, is an annual holiday every December 3rd during which a person's crush is meant to give them their sweater as a display of their love. The holiday is inspired by the song "Heather" by Conan Gray in which he sings, "I still remember, third of December, me in your sweater." The song was released in March 2020 and people began referencing it in relation to December 3rd that same year on Twitter and TikTok, becoming an annual trend in subsequent years.

Background

On March 20th, 2020, Conan Gray released the song "Heather," a track about "unrequited love." The song's Genius^[1] page explains, "The song talks about Conan being in love with someone who is in love with Heather. He talks about frustration and jealousy and how he has a love/hate relationship with Heather, wanting to be her." The music video was released on YouTube^[2] on August 20th of that year, garnering over 125 million views in two years (shown below).

I still remember, third of December, me in your sweater
You said it looked better on me than it did you
Only if you knew, how much I liked you
But I watch your eyes as she
Walks by

Heather Day 2020

In the days leading up to the third of December 2020, users on Twitter and TikTok began discussing December 3rd as if they were expecting (or not expecting) their crush to give them a sweater on that day, often referring to it as "Heather Day." It is unclear who started the trend, but the term was defined on Urban Dictionary^[3] as early as October 31st, 2020. On December 2nd, 2020, TikToker^[4] @.yikes.isabella posted a video about the day, garnering over 1.6 million views in two years (shown below).

On December 3rd, 2020, Conan Gray then acknowledged Heather Day on Twitter,^[5] writing, "it’s officially heather day and nobody has given me a sweater yet, so i made one for all of us. we our own heathers now. happy heather day 🕊," providing a link to purchase a sweater and garnering over 73,000 likes and 8,000 retweets in two years (shown below).

Online Reactions and Memes

Heather Day 2021

In the weeks leading up to December 3rd, 2021, people, particularly on TikTok, began posting about Heather Day again — some sharing their excitement and hoping they'd get a sweater and others sharing stress over the upcoming day, assuming they won't get a sweater (example shown below). On December 2nd, 2021, Distractify^[6] published an article about Heather Day.

Heather Day 2022

In the months leading up to Heather Day 2022, TikTokers started posting about the date with more frequency, inspiring a larger presence than the previous years. On September 10th, 2022, TikToker^[7] @b3.real posted a video wishing for a sweater on December 3rd, garnering over a million views in two months (shown below, left). On October 16th, TikToker^[8] @bahahhabozo posted a similar video, garnering over 3 million views in a month (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References