Each year, Starbucks greets the holiday season with new cups, primarily red, decorated festively with various winter and Christmas designs. This year however, the designs have been put on hold and traded in for a “minimalist” plain red cup. While the abundant decorations were enjoyed, most people have no problem at all with the new smooth ombre fading that others are opposing by claiming Starbucks is anti-Christmas.
Firstly, Starbucks does not oppose Christmas simply because of the color of their cups. Like the media claims, they would have simply disregarded the holiday cups and the season and not gotten any new cups.
The person who called this “controversy” to the internet’s attention in the first place made irrational claims. Joseph Feuerstein claimed that Starbucks has declared “war on Christmas” by changing the cups, and that Starbucks employees apparently aren’t allowed to wish their customers a Merry Christmas (which has not been proven true). He also stated that he wanted to turn their “political correctness” into just “correctness.” It’s doubtful any corporation aims to rage war on Christmas, especially considering how much it’s commercialized.
Lastly, Starbucks is a coffee shop franchise, not a malevolent conspiring being. People as a whole should have learned by now that no company will ever please all of society entirely. There will always be backlash.
It’s easy to understand that taking away the Christmas trees and snowmen could be taken as a sign that Starbucks is rejecting Christmas, but consumers can at least appreciate that they’re still turning the cups red, making the primarily used colors red and green. If Starbucks really wanted to ignore Christmas they way some claim, they would have turned them blue to give Hanukkah a chance to be represented, or they would have continued to serve from the original white cups.
People should not resent Starbucks for not including the decorations, because it’s doubtful that this means they hate Christmas. Everyone should just focus on enjoying the Christmas season and helping others do the same, rather than rage over those who they think are “ruining” it.
