Starbucks Cups Have Never Been Religious, People

By now, you’ve likely heard some of the backlash surrounding Starbucks and their 2015 holiday-themed coffee cup. There are Christians taking it as an attack on Christmas because the cup is minimalist and doesn’t include the wintry designs of seasons past. Apparently snowflakes, ice skates, reindeer, and snowmen are a huge testament to Jesus – according to this video rant, that quickly went viral.

Wait. No they’re not.

Starbucks holiday cups have never been “religious” in any way. But people are too busy jumping on the “War on Christmas” bandwagon to realize that.

Many, many people honestly feel their religious beliefs are being trampled on because of a fucking coffee cup – and are seriously upset. Meanwhile, there’s a humanitarian refugee crisis going on in Syria, there are so many horrific gun violence stories trending it would be hard to keep them all straight, and there are hordes of other legitimately awful things to create a hashtag about. But never mind that. Let’s focus on #StarbucksWarOnChristmas.

Oh, and about that war on Christmas. Someone may want to tell Starbucks about it. Because they happen to sell all of this stuff in their stores:

They also sell Christmas K-cups and other Christmas ornament designs along with mugs adorned with gold peace signs. I’d say they’re more “Christmas-y” than many other retail outlets that tend to go more “holiday” than “Christmas” with their product offerings. In fact, a quick perusal of Dunkin Donuts’ website revealed not a single item with the word “Christmas” on it. If anything, I’d think Christians would be all over Starbucks for the fact that they haven’t shied away from it. An Advent Calendar, for goodness sake. That looks very Christmas-friendly to me.

In a statement to E! News, Starbucks says: “In response to the video, our core values as a company is to create a culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity. Each year during the holidays we aim to bring our customers an experience that inspires the spirit of the season and we will continue to embrace and welcome customers from all backgrounds and religions in our stores around the world.”

That sounds right, doesn’t it? After all, Starbucks is not a religious organization and shouldn’t be catering to Christians anymore than they would other religious groups. They shouldn’t have to. They’re just a coffee company trying to appeal to the masses and the masses are definitely not all Christian. I completely understand their aim in creating a design that speaks to the season, and not one holiday in particular. It makes sense from the standpoint of a large company just trying to sell a bunch of coffee during their busiest time of year.

Look. It’s not up to me or any other person to tell someone what news they should be worried about, but I’d like to think we can all take a step back and agree that the Starbucks cup uproar is total nonsense. If you’re a believer and want to celebrate Christmas with the spirit of Christ, that is something you can do whether Starbucks gets into it or not. No one should need a coffee cup designed in a way that affirms their beliefs. If that’s the case, I question the strength of those beliefs to begin with if they’re so easily threatened.