Starbucks certainly started of the winter season stirring up some controversy with the red cup, void of any other festive garb.   It started off with Joshua Feuerstein, a former pastor who calls himself a “social media personality”. Feuerstein posted a video on Facebook bashing Starbucks for this year’s red cup. At the beginning of the video, he urges Christians to “trick” the employees by telling them that their name is “Merry Christmas”, thus implementing the Christian faith on the cup. At the end of the 1 minute and 18 second video Feuerstein says, “Hey Starbucks, guess what, just to offend you I wore my Jesus Christ shirt into your store.” Then, reaching into his pocket and whispering says, “and since you hate the second amendment, I even carried my gun. Yikes.” Feuerstein’s video has had 15,643,196 views as of mid-November; and that number only continues to grow. He instructs viewers to post the picture of the cup with #MerryChristmasStarbucks to spread the message.
Others have weighed in on this red cup controversy:

“Love it Joshua, AMEN AMEN. I will ALWAYS KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS.”

“I love this! But I really don’t like their coffee…#MerryChristmasStarbucks.”

“Yes! It’s so refreshing to see a Christian focusing on truly important issues! Thank you for saving everyone from the travesty of not having “Christmas” written on their coffee cup. Because, you know, without Starbucks writing it the world would not know what day it was! They MUST hate Jesus! Oh, and double thanks for showing the world that when we don’t like the way someone else acts we intentionally and publicly do things to “offend” them instead of praying for them and showing them Christ’s love and grace. Kudos!”

Others went on to state, “Do you think Jesus would worry about the color of the cups???? We have people being killed in our cities and children starving……do you really think this matters??????” and, “You are misinformed. I work at Starbucks and there hasn’t been anything innately Christmas on the cups in years. Sure there have been snowflakes, scarves, and snowmen, but they haven’t said the word Christmas on them since I’ve worked here. We even have a Christmas blend coffee. You are making an issue out of nothing. Plus, how are you hurting Starbucks by encouraging people to spend money there? I’ll write whatever you want on the cup, just pay for it.”
And the comments continue.

The color and design of the Starbucks holiday cup has varied throughout the years:
2008- Snowflakes and turtledoves were part of the red cup, which turned the infamous Starbucks logo into an ornament.
2009- This years red cup was adorned with ornaments with messages including “I wish every day was a holiday”.
2010- Art deco characters were seen caroling in the snowflakes on the red cup. “Stories are gifts” were also written on the cups.
2011- This years red cup had characters playing winter sports, sledding, ice skating, etc
2012- A winking snowman took over the red cup
2013- This year’s cup included Christmas trees, snowflakes, and stars, with red gold and white colors.
2014- A classic red cup with darker shades of red to show snowflakes and trees
And here we are this year with a plain red cup. In response to Feuerstein’s video Starbucks stated that it tries “to create a culture of belonging, inclusion, and diversity”. The cup is meant to be a “blank canvas” that encourages “customers to tell their own Christmas stories in their own way”. Starbucks continues to sell a Christmas Blend coffee, “Merry Christmas” gift cards, and holiday ornaments.