With everything that is happening in the world, the last thing anyone should be worrying about is Starbucks. And yet, as I wait for my vanilla iced coffee, all I can hear anyone talking about is those stupid red cups. Now, before I go into detail about why this, in my opinion, is a completely pointless thing to be mad about, I would like to get two things clear. First of all, I am a Catholic, which means I love and believe in Jesus Christ. It also means that, even from a theological viewpoint, I can tell that this is as Shakespeare once said, much ado about nothing. Second of all, I freaking love Christmas. If it could be Christmas every day, I would totally be happy and singing "Jingle Bells" and "Can You See What I See" all the time. It also means that this is not, as many conservative new sources enjoy saying, a "War on Christmas." Why not? Let me explain.
The image you see above is the new red cup that Starbucks released to usher in the holiday season. Notice anything weird? Me neither. In all honesty, I saw the cup and thought, Wow, look at Starbucks putting a minimalist touch to their cups. Never once did I see it as an attack on my faith or a condemnation of my love for Christmas. However, some people, as you may have heard, did. And their reasoning, excuse my language, is so stupid. According to online user Joshua Feurestein, Starbucks has explicitly removed all traces of Christmas and Christ from their cups as an explicit attack on Christians. Now, at first, like most people, I was little confused. This was mostly due to the fact that this was the design for Starbucks' cups last year.
As I look at these cups, I see no explicit trace of Christmas on it, no discussion of Christ or anything religious. The only thing I see is a much more decorated red cup. In fact, the only thing that makes me think this might be related to Christmas is the fact that there's an ornament and some holly. And yet, this does not stop some people from yammering on about Starbucks' sudden hatred of Christmas. So I decided to do some research myself and went to my nearest Starbucks, and you know what I saw? A Christmas tree. Also, I saw something even more confusing:
You know, for a company that is supposedly declaring war on Christmas, it seems a bit impractical to have, I don't know, a giant sign and multiple bags of something called, Christmas Blend. So as you can see, there is no real point being mad about a stupid red cup. In fact, we should applaud Starbucks for being a bit more inclusive for other holidays, which some people seem to forget exist (imagine the reaction to a Hanukkah or Kwanzaa Blend). Also, we should focus on the good that Starbucks has been doing recently, such as creating 97 LGBT+ Safe Spaces, which helps get to the true meaning of Christmas: helping one another. Instead of putting energy into complaining about a cup, more energy should be put towards helping support the homeless, or helping support those affected by the tragedy in France, or supporting poor families. Because, after all, what is more Christian than doing what the Bible says in Phillipians 2:4, "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others?"
