Through the years the famous coffee shop, Starbucks, would decorate their cups red with small images of snowflakes, snowmen, or festive Christmas ornaments. This year, Starbucks changed their cups to just plain red cup causing huge debates nation wide.

Starbucks changed their cups from being festive and fun to being just a red cup for this holiday season. Starbucks made this change so they would not offend anyone with a different religion and to let people be creative and put whatever they would like on their red cup. So what is the big debate? On November 5, Joshua Feuerstein accused Starbucks of “hating Jesus” all because they removed the Christmas pattern. That video has now gone viral with 80,285 views on YouTube as of November 12. People have also used #MerryChristmasStarbucks to bash the company on social media sights. Many think that Starbucks is trying to take Christ and Christmas away from those who do celebrate Christmas.

What is so wrong with our society that we have to make everything into a big deal? We are fighting over a cup! First, everyone has their own right to celebrate their religions in whatever way they choose and that is what Starbucks is trying to say. They are still making a fun and festive red cup, just leaving it blank for people to decorate it any way they prefer.

Second, even the cups with the Christmas pattern that had snowflakes, and reindeer and snowmen on them, were not religious designs. Snow falls in winter no matter what your beliefs are and last time I checked reindeer have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. Starbucks removed commercial symbols off of holiday cups, so what does it matter if the cup is just red? This argument is invalid because the cups were never religious to begin with.

Third, if you are in line at Starbucks then maybe you should think about how the true holiday season should be celebrated by sharing, giving, and caring for others, not standing in a line wasting seven dollars at a coffee shop that upsets you because they have red cups.