Sorry, Santa. According to Google, December no longer exists.

Story highlights

A buggy app in Google's new mobile operating system omits the month of December

One headline asks, "Is Google the new Grinch who stole Christmas?"

NEW: Google posted a statement Tuesday vowing to fix the problem

CNN  — 

Is Google in a hurry to get 2012 over with?

Probably not. But that didn’t stop the snarky headlines after it was discovered that a buggy app in the new version of Google’s mobile operating system omits the month of December.

The People app lets users bookmark friends’ birthdays and other important dates on a calendar. But some users of Android 4.2, the system’s newest update, are complaining they can’t note December dates in the app because its calendar skips from November to January. December simply does not exist.

The Internet’s reaction was swift.

“Is Google the new Grinch who stole Christmas?” posed CNET, a tech-news site. “Sure, the month of December can be expensive and stressful, but Google apparently has an app for avoiding it.”

Added Business Insider, “The new version of Android thinks there are only 11 months in a year.”

And Engadget said the Android bug “makes end-of-year birthdays even less bearable.”

Google posted a statement Tuesday on the Android page of Google+, its social network, vowing to fix the problem. It said:

“We discovered a bug in the Android 4.2 update, which makes it impossible to enter December events in optional fields of the People app (this bug did not affect Calendar). Rest assured, this will be fixed soon so that those of you with December birthdays and anniversaries won’t be forgotten by your friends and family.”

Android 4.2 is found on a handful of devices, including Google’s Galaxy Nexus phone and Nexus 7 tablet.

The bug does not affect the Calendar app in Android 4.2 – nicknamed Jelly Bean – where December is still alive and well. So maybe Google isn’t worried about that Mayan apocalypse after all.