Mikaela Millslagle | Opinion Editor
Lately there have been strings of new articles across different feeds on a wide variety of topics – ISIS attacks, UFC fight outcomes, new Netflix arrivals, and political debate outcomes. One topic that made its hype around the Internet world last week is actually a little different from all of this: the Starbucks holiday cup. This little cup created a lot of tension across the United States just by existing. How? That’s a question I honestly had right away. How does the use of red cups offend so many people in our nation?
Now, I will have to admit that I laughed when I first read an actual article. Multiple new interfaces were claiming that Christians in particular were attempting to boycott Starbucks because of these cups. Why? Because they viewed them as another hit for the “War on Christmas”, claiming that by removing any and all decorations that have previously been featured during the holidays Starbucks was attempting to remove Christ from Christmas. After reading through a variety of sources, I’ve determined that someone out there must have far too much time on their hands (where can I get some of that?) and they must not truly understand how to represent Christ during Christmas.
Previously, Starbucks has always featured a holiday, wintery and Christmas themed cup during this time. Looking back, we see cups adorned with snowflakes (winter), snowmen (winter), nutcrackers (winter), reindeer (Christmas), and sometimes aesthetically designed writing (like the word Joy). This year, Starbucks has chosen not to sport a new design on their well-known cups. Instead, the company has opted to simply use red cups, also maintaining their green logo as well. Now, WHY is this a war on Christmas?
Among different articles about how this change is offensive, there have also been many that describe how people are being completely outrageous with their notions. Looking through it all, I’ve noticed that most people must not realize how unrelated to Christmas so many previous designs have been. As noted, most of the characters the cups have pictured over the years are simply related to winter, and only distantly related to Christmas itself. Images of cartoon children playing in the snow, snowmen grinning, snowflakes dancing across the cups… Can these all not be related to Thanksgiving as well, depending on where you live? Here in Iowa it’s not completely unheard of to have snow on the ground at this point (it’s actually quite odd we haven’t had snowfall yet this year) and I know that most children don’t wait until Christmas season begins to go out and enjoy the fun.
In addition to this, the actual color scheme for Christmas is green and red. GREEN AND RED. The literal color scheme that the cups are displaying. If you ask me, this is the most Christmas thing the company can do without simply writing “Merry Christmas” across the cups, which would be incorrect for multiple reasons, the first being that Christmas is not the only winter holiday (why does everyone like to skip Thanksgiving????).
It seems that many people are just needing something to rant about, and the “War on Christmas” call is simply a way to draw attention to something completely irrelevant to our everyday lives. If Starbucks has made a change that offends you, your best option would be to brew your own coffee at home, in your own cup, with your own special blend to make sure your toes don’t get stepped on. Perhaps then you could turn on your television, sit down wrapped up in a nice warm blanket, and watch the news over disastrous events occurring world-wide, and maybe also say a special thanks for being where you currently are. Life could be a lot worse than being offended over a coffee cup.
