By Jada Lister

The holiday season just barely began, yet people are already stirring up controversy over various holiday products.

The one that has received the most attention so far has been the holiday-themed coffee cup from Starbucks. In place of the “symbols of the season” that have been used in the past such, as snowflakes and reindeer, the company has opted for a simpler two-toned red cup. The controversy took off on social media on November 5th when Joshua Feuerstein, a former evangelical pastor posted a video on Facebook that criticized Starbucks for removing “Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus.”
Feuerstein asked his followers to tell baristas their name is “Merry Christmas” so it will appear on their cups. “And I’m challenging all great Americans and Christians around this great nation: go into Starbucks and take your own coffee selfie.” He urged people to use the hashtag #MerryChristmasStarbucks to share photos of their now non-secular cups.
Personally, I think this controversy has been blown out of proportion. It’s just a cup, not an attack on Christianity. If people are basing their faith off of a red cup then they are obviously overly sensitive and are just sitting around waiting to get offended by nothing. Especially when our world has more pressing issues to attend to such as terrorism, world hunger, sexism, climate change, etc.
In past years, the cups have featured snowflakes, snowmen, and pine trees; these are not exactly religious symbols by any means. If the lack of holiday designs bothers people so much, then they should just draw their own design on the cup, which is what the new design was intended for anyways. In a statement released by Starbucks on the new design, they said, “Starbucks is inviting customers to create their own stories with a red cup that mimics a blank canvas.”
Some such as Washington Heights resident Richard Herrera, who works as a video editor and motion graphic designer for Marvel, have done just that, “I saw the blank cup as an opportunity to make them more Christmassy.” He has drawn numerous pop-culture icons such as The Simpsons, Charlie Brown, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman, all of which people can relate to regardless of religion, on the cups.
I am not an overly religious person, however I do celebrate Christmas every year. To me the holiday is about spending time with my family, recalling happy memories, and spreading positivity and a sense of togetherness. It’s not about presents or decorations or a coffee cup with a special design. Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not what Christmas is really about. I think many people have lost sight of this and have developed a tendency to focus on the materialistic side of the holiday. Therefore, I would ask those that are still bothered by this, if you’re worried about a cup, then what does Christmas really mean to you?