For coffee enthusiasts and fans of the festive season, standing in line to get your latté served in a Starbucks Christmas cup is all part of the festive cheer.
The Christmas cups are now a tradition with the coffee retailer, whose designs are usually Instagrammed with incorrect spelling names from early November.
This year they decided to opt for something a little different – they went for a minimalist look “with a bright poppy colour on top that shades into a darker cranberry below.”
Image: Starbucks
Explaining the concept to Buzzfeed, Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks’ vice president of design and content said:
“We have anchored the design with the classic Starbucks holiday red that is bright and exciting.
“The ombré creates a distinctive dimension, fluidity and weightedness.”
There’s only one problem though.
People want the designs. In fact, people LOVED the designs.
It’s safe to assume the designs could have been the only reason half the customers were drinking coffee, by the online storm that kicked off when the new cups were unveiled.
The biggest complaint?
Some Christians felt like the retailer’s new approach was demeaning the value of the holiday time, and wiping out the traditional symbols associated with the ritual.
In other words, they’re ruining Christmas.
My Christmas mentality: If a store won’t promote Christmas re Starbucks, I’m not spending my hard earned money there https://t.co/dfNTiwSojI
— Chuck Nellis (@ChuckNellis) November 5, 2015
Since you’re running away from Christianity, I’m running from you! Just exercising my financial choice https://t.co/DsieOuz8eA #ccot #tcot — Leah (@Hael381) November 5, 2015
TIL that Starbucks is rounding Christians up into coffee death camps and making them drink Pagan Spice Lattes. https://t.co/yzVooiNEUQ
— Mark Jaquith (@markjaquith) November 7, 2015
Other people seemed a lot more relaxed to the whole approach:
Lmao people are really upset over the red Starbucks cups because they don’t symbolism “Christmas”… I am flabbergasted by stupidity — Mason Webb (@themasonwebb) November 8, 2015
if your biggest gripe in the world is the lack of Christmas symbology on @Starbucks red cups – you live in a very special place
— JustGngr (@justgngr) November 8, 2015
If starbucks removing “merry christmas” from its cups really threatens the fibers of your faith system, what did it ever stand for really? — Lauren DeStefano (@LaurenDeStefano) November 8, 2015
Probably not the good tidings feeling they were hoping for…
