Holiday tradition of criticizing Starbucks holiday cups continues

We might be into the first few days of November, but the holidays are right around the corner. How this can be confirmed? People are already complaining about those damn Starbucks holiday cups.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Starbucks cup controversy, first let me congratulate you on escaping one of the most ludicrous arguments ever made.

Since 2006, every mid-November the coffee company releases a series of disposable cups that promote the holiday season. One of this year’s designs was recently leaked on Reddit by an employee, and since then the internet has been flooded with various opinions on it.

The design illustrates various holiday symbols on a white cup: such as a decorated Christmas tree, white doves, a star, wrapped presents, hand holding and red ribbons. At its reveal, people took their opinions on the leaked design to social media sites, namely Twitter.

Some users approved of the seasonal cup, stating that the designs were adorable and channeled the holiday spirit. Others eagerly mentioned how they could not wait to order their favorite drink in them.

On the other side, however, some disagreed and revived controversies from previous years.

Users ranted about the design lacks Christian symbolism — were they expecting a full-on sketch of the nativity scene? — stating that the coffee cup’s lack of red added to the company’s failure of addressing the term “Christmas.”

Back in 2015, the company proposed a solution to this issue by making their cups solid red, with the company logo being the only design, and man, did that only make things worse.

Angry customers ranted, asking “Where’s the holiday spirit? Where is the festivity?” One man, Joshua Feuerstein, even posted a video on his Facebook with the caption: “Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus.”

Even then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested a boycott against Starbucks.

What I will say is the fact that there are people who get so upset about these designs makes me wonder: Why do they care so much about cups they’re most likely going to throw away? I highly doubt that people keep a shrine of these DISPOSABLE cups; unless they are hoarders or just really love them that much.

I know people think this controversy plays into the “War on Christmas” and how America fails to recognize and respect Christianity, but what they need to realize is that when designing these cups Starbucks tries to consider all cultures.

Christmas might be a popular holiday, but there are other U.S. celebrations affiliated with different religions, and there should be no issue in that because civilians have the right to practice whatever they choose to; it’s in the First amendment.

I love the holidays as much as the next person, but there are more important topics to argue about than whether your overpriced coffee is going to have baby Jesus on it or not.