Starbuck's Red Cups and the "War on Christmas"

Every year near the holidays Starbuck's starts using seasonal red cups, usually with holiday designs. This year they are just blank with a red gradient

2015:

2014:

However some people have taken this to be part of the growing (and made up) "War on Christmas"

Some "social media personality" decided to stir things up, and "prank" Starbuck's by encouraging people to say "Merry Christmas" rather than their name, so that Starbuck's employees will have to write Merry Christmas on the cops

"Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus ... SO I PRANKED THEM ... and they HATE IT!!!"

Hate to break it to him, but Starbuck's still got your money so I doubt they really give a shit

Source

Source with more tweets for and against starbuck's

It must be odd believing that there's a war on Christmas. I can't tell if I should envy them or pity them. On one hand they clearly don't have any real discrimination or attacks on their liberty to worry about, but on the other they seem to be incredibly paranoid. I guess that's what happens when you're so used to everything being done the exact way you want it, when something finally changes you don't know how to cope any more.

LOL "War on Christmas". Brilliant! What will these wacky social cons think of next

There is a war on Christmas and it's disgusting to see it being belittled and commercialized, as well as ignored and not recognized. As a pagan, I despise what those Christians have done to our beloved holiday of drunkenness and criminality.

Are people in the US so paranoid at this point that they think someone wants to take christmas away in a armed uprising?

Since that's kinda what War is.

i am OUTRAGED over this ... what were we talking about again?? oh well **** it that's not the important part the important part is my OUTRAGE!

i have it and i'm crying to the world about it.

join my outrage over whatever it was and tell facebook about it!

Because in the United States, there's a war on everything. There's a war on women, a war on cancer, a war on Christmas, a war on drugs, a war on terror, a war on poverty, and there's a culture war.

War as a metaphor demeans what war really is.

It really must be nice when you are in a position to complain about this as something of an attack.

Why even bother with the red cup? They should just make it green for money.

This is exactly why I despise those hardcore Christians...

No. People are just sick of politically correctness.

Perhaps instead of buying a $5 coffee, they could give that money to charity like a real Christian would?

Buying a coffee makes someone a fake Christian?

Hppy hldys you folks

2014 cup definitely looks better.

No, but acting absolutely nothing like Christ and trying to force the Old Testament of the bible into the law to oppress minorities does. The Starbucks thing just makes the people offended by it petty and delusional, not really a testament to how genuine their faith is, no.

*slaps knee* Ha, I was just about to bring that up, although not in those exact words. *sigh* So many Christians just don't even understand their own religion.

It's not ugly. It's just plain. For whatever reason, they didn't want any symbols disrupting the gradient effect they were going for.

They wanted a clean ornament look

Not that I actually give a shit about so-called political correctness, but to interpret this cup as political correctness is one hell of a stretch.

Starbucks.....lol.

Um... My local Walmart has had Christmas trees in Lawn and Garden since mid-September, and that same Walmart is plastered with signs on every single aisle that say the phrase "Merry Christmas". In fact, those were put up before Halloween even came. Likewise, Christmas lights and decor are starting to appear all over shopping strips since mid-October.

But Starbucks not putting (secular, may I note) Christmas designs on their disposable cups is somehow a pushing of Christmas outside of our culture. Right.

If anything, Christmas is getting more and more pervasive. The fact that the Halloween candy was cleared out before Halloween so it could be replaced by Christmas candy should say quite a lot, if you didn't take the hint from my first paragraph.

Depressed people that don't feel like they're loved enough like to draw attention to themselves.

@MarioFan264: This was the first year I noticed this myself. I don't know who starts buying their Christmas stuff in mid October, but there was already an Isle dedicated to white trash cheap plastic Christmas crap.

Deranged neanderthals with no appreciation to aesthetics. The new cup is slick, definitely prettier than it's antecedent.

It's a good thing I don't drink Starbucks coffee cause there prices are too damn high. Dunkin Donuts is were it's at.

I prefer Pete's Coffee anyway.

Starbucks tastes like dirty, wet socks to me. Christmas is no longer a community thing. Everyone just shuts themselves at home without spreading the spirit of Christmas with their fellow neighbors. Christmas sales will also be shit this year, I tell ya.

I didn't know conservatives were so invested in hipster drinks.

Who, prey tell, is trying to oppress minorities with religion at least in the context of Starbucks? The guy above clearly states you are not a Christian if you buy a $5.00 coffee rather than donating the money.

@GreySeal9

Most likely I can agree. Removing what appears to be snowflakes (unless that picture doesn't show everything) doesn't seem to be a serious issue and should really be a non-issue but people who see it as an attack on Xmas look at it as a company bowing to politically correctness. If these people can show me how these graphics from prior years correlate with Xmas, I'd like to hear it. The bigger issue to me is why would someone waste money on over-priced coffee. Dunkin' Donuts is better and cheaper.

Well the core tenet of Christianity is a persecution complex so this is not surprising. Otherwise it's a non issue for idiots to tweet about, i.e Trump.

I don't go out of my way to hate on other people, but that's just me.

I'm not paying $20 for a cup with no lid anyways. Put or remove whatever you want.

Hilarious and true.

What ? It looks like a mermaid ? Why do people even care ? They should just stop going there then ? STupid ! I mean i can start crap about the KFC Colonel Sanders if we wanted to, but why would we ? This is so lame.

The idiot who originally brought up this "issue" is just crying out for attention.

http://www.towleroad.com/2015/07/joshua-feuerstein/

"

Pastor Joshua Feuerstein, a “former television and radio evangelist” who, according to his Facebook page, “has turned to social media with his personal story of redemption and the hope of how Jesus Christ can heal a hurting heart,” posted a video last week reacting to the SCOTUS ruling on marriage and its legal repercussions that has racked up more than 5 million views.

Rants Feuerstein in the clip:

“I remember telling you guys a long time ago that this was not about gay marriage and equality!….It’s about reconstitutionalizing a term so that now it opens up the door for the liberals to come after Christianity!”

Feuerstein then brandishes a semi-automatic assault rifle and urges his listeners to fight gay marriage and defend religious freedom using guns.

They’re coming after our First Amendment constitutional rights! Well, check this out, this is one pastor that will not bow. Why? Because my First Amendment right (holds up gun) is guaranteed by my Second Amendment right. Think about that, ladies and gentlemen. It’s time that we finally take a stand and say no more. We’re not backing up any further. We’re not going to allow a tyrannical government to come in and strip away our rights as Christians and try to demonize us so that they can make the Bible bigoted.”

@GazaAli: yeah

Way less tacky

No people are just idiots.. Black Friday, the shopping day meant for Christmas shopping, now begins DURING Thanksgiving... Christmas is so big, it is taking over ANOTHER major US holiday.

Honestly, I think that maybe the real point is obscured. The original cups -with the snowflakes or what have you - had nothing to do with the religous holdiay of christmas. In fact, most of the things you see during December don't. Reindeer, snowflakes, Santa Claus, presents, etc. That's more a cultural thing. Most of my friends do not actively practice any religion, but they like the christmas holiday, season , etc. It's time off work and time to meet with friends and family. I don't see why that shouldn't be celebrated like Thanksgiving or any other holiday.

Buying a $5 coffee and complaining about a gigantic corporation starting a "war on Christmas", which in itself is essentially an entirely commercial holiday these days, instead of going out and giving that luxury money to someone who might need it more most definitely makes someone a "fake" Christian. The number two tenet of Christianity after love is charity, and charity in Christianity isn't done for the sake of getting a tax receipt. It's done to make other people's lives better.

Much like it is written in most religions but hardly ever practiced by those who claim to be one. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc.

The first thing I thought when I saw this a few days ago was "people are fucking morons." I can't believe how upset some people are over this.

As an atheist secularist, I don't see anything wrong with saying "Merry Christmas", hell we own that shit now, just like you say "Happy Halloween" in the dress up in slutty costumes and eat candy corn kind of way, not the Christian or pagan traditionalist kind of way, just like Easter is about candy and magical bunnies and kids on Easter egg hunts and not about masoChrist and his stations of the cross and his erection and shit, silly rabbit that's not for kids. Christmas is a consumer holiday to spend with family, friends, and love ones, and is not to be horded over by religious fanatics.

I mean, who is really waging a war on Christmas, secularists? or Christians who never shut up about it and out to ruin everyone else's good time?

Stupid Christians make for funny memes at least.

There is a war on christmas. It is spearheaded by the Muslim-led Starbucks coffee corporation, who uses the dried, roasted eggs of our subterranean lizardfolk overlords to make "coffee" and brainwash us into being neo-fascist liberal zombies.

OH DEAR SANTA! HELP US!

This sums it up well. Christmas is not about religion any more; granted, I know some poor bastards that attend mass, but that is usually the day before or after.

Christmas is about getting together with family, exchanging gifts (or consumerism, if you're a cynical dick), and enjoying life.

Most holidays are like that. Except thanksgiving. Me and my family still hold the tradition of killing natives dear to our hearts.

I just wanted an excuse to post that.

This seems appropriate.

@Serraph105: I win! By two whole seconds!

^ Haha!

I don't get what the big fuss is about. It's still clearly a Christmas cup, look at those colors...

@mattbbpl: nice, guess I'll post a pc pic then.

@sonicare: can't do that, then green would be St Patrick's Day cups.

That's precisely the point, I think. This "War on Christmas" is very much a made up thing being used to manipulate people who should know better. I couldn't think of a better way for that to be exposed so clearly.

The hilarious thing about this too is the fact they most likely did it to save money more than anything else.