Taking The Red Cup Out Of Christmas #NaBloPoMo

Apparently, my fellow Christian brothers and sisters have been up in arms because of the new holiday cups from Starbucks. I’m not sure why they are even so upset. All I feel right now is a lot of shame because I cannot believe we are even getting upset about something like this. As a fellow Christian, I felt mortified that this was even a trending “news” item on social media. I had to just scream, “REALLY?!?!?!”

When did red cups represent Christmas? When did having a minimalist or simple design become “political correctness”? How did red holiday cups from a place that serves coffee insult Christmas? What if the cups were green, instead? Or how about just white? Is it because there were no snowflakes on it? Maybe it’s because now we won’t be sure if it’s Christmas or not?

If we are concerned about losing the spirit or true meaning of Christmas – well, I think we just lost it when we ripped apart a company for making a design decision. Christians are not the only ones who consume Starbucks. People of all religions frequent it. Why should a holiday cup represent only Christmas? I think they appropriately chose something simple to represent a commonly used color for the Christmas holidays. Will we forget Christmas if it isn’t explicitly said or plastered over everything?

I’m not sure how having a simple red cup to hold your coffee diminishes Christmas. Why weren’t we, as Christians, up in arms about the Syrian refugees? Or about the fact that our children are getting gunned down on a much too frequent basis? You know what else really makes me outraged? That we, Christians, preach about reconciliation, love, grace and forgiveness, but we rarely practice it.

So let’s take the red cup out of Christmas. Let’s remember that there are other people in this world that believe in other things and that it was never Jesus’ job or intention to stuff down the celebration of his birth down anyone’s throat – or in anyone’s red cup of coffee.