Starbucks and a false alarm in the war on Christmas

Personally, I find the very flavor of coffee to be both abhorrent and disgusting. In fact, so distasteful is the flavor of coffee to my palette that I do not even enjoy a piece of tiramisu. This partly explains my confusion as to why people seem to have worked themselves up so over the decision Starbucks' has made this year regarding its holiday cups.

N.B.: See this post regarding why I am not too concerned about someone's decision to say "Happy holidays!" instead of "Merry Christmas!".

Jeffrey Fields, Vice President of Starbucks, said the decision was made with the intention "to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories." Fair enough. We could all do with a simplification and a purification of the way in which we celebrate Christmas. We have become far too concerned about materialistic considerations and have begun, both individually and societal, to lose sight of the humility of the Incarnation of the only begotten Son of God. Seen in this way, Starbucks' decision can be heard as a clarion call for us to return, as it were, to the basics.

What horrendous decision did the coffee franchise make to cause a furor on social media? Starbucks has decided that its holiday cups will simply be red:

Photo: Starbucks

Apparently this decision for a simplified cup was enough to lead to Joshua Feuerstein - a former Protestant pastor and televangelist - to claim that Starbucks "wanted to take Christ and Christmas off of their brand new cups" and is calling on people to say their name is "Merry Christmas" so the Merry Christmas will be called out throughout the coffee shops. Leaving aside the moral question of lying regarding a person's name, this is, in my opinion, simply ridiculous.

Because I do not frequent Starbucks, I had no idea what designs their cups had in previous years. A simple Google image search (for both "Starbucks Christmas cups" and "Starbucks holiday cups"), however, turned up cups with snowflakes, reindeer, carolers, a nutcracker, ornaments, and even Santa Claus , but I could not find a single cup with Christ or Christmas on them, which completely debunks Feuerstein's claim and shows the ignorance of those who quickly jumped on his angry bandwagon.

If we look realistically at the cup design for the 2015 holiday season, the cups are red and green (look at the circle around the mermaid). Are red and green not generally recognized as Christmas colors? Are these colors any less religious than the designs used in previous years? Of course not. There is nothing explicitly Christian or religious in any of the designs on Starbucks cups.

Consequently, I am calling Feuerstein's call to arms a false alarm in the war on Christmas.

For reasons I do not fully understand, American's today seem to enjoy being angry at any little thing, but when there is significant about which they should be righteously angry, they do not give not two hoots about it. Maybe Americans drink too much coffee and just need to calm down.

The celebration of Christmas is about immensity of the love of God shown so clearly in the Birth of Jesus the Christ. How does becoming angry about the design of a coffee cup, inciting others to anger over a coffee cup, and basically calling others to yell at a coffee company help reveal the love of God?

All Feuerstein's call does is make Christians look angry and unreasonable. This is certainly not the message of Christmas.

More on Santa

Reader Melody is a mom who does not celebrate Santa Claus with her children. In a post from last year she gave her reasoning thus:

If you are a Christian parent, you know that every word that comes out of your mouth is a testimony to your child about the love and truth of Christ. You know from experience that your failures in virtue are soaked up into your little sponge children in the blink of an eye. You know how compromised your witness is by any uncharitable word, selfish behavior...and all deceitfulness. We know how much we abhor lies in our children and teach them to imitate Jesus who is the Way, the TRUTH, and the life. The game of pretending does indeed become a lie if it is intended to deliberately deceive for any extended period of time. When your little one looks trustingly up into your face and asks, "Mommy, is Santa really real?" and you say "Yes, He is", what acceptable justification is there for such a deception? It is likely that, someday, that same child will look at you and ask, "Mommy, is Jesus really real?" and you will say "Yes, He is." The child is asking for the truth and deserves purity in our responses. Our children need to know that we will not lie to them and must be able to trust our word in all things because we are their primary witness to love of Jesus Christ in their lives.

She gives further explanation that is worth reading, and also offers a few humorous reasons.

Was he right to say it? I suspect so

His Excellency the Most Reverend Fabriciano Sigampa, Archbishop of Resistencia [a fitting name for his Diocese] recently said in a homily that children should know that it is not Santa Clause who brings their gifts on Christmas:

"That's not Christmas," Archbishop Fabriciano Sigampa of the northern city of Resistencia said in mass, insisting that children should not confuse celebrating the birth of Christ "with a fat man dressed in red."

Sigampa's ire was aroused by plans for a snow covered cabin in the city's main square where a Father Christmas figure would hear children's wishes and receive donated toys to be given out to poor children.

"Surely, in the coming days there will be a deluge of advertisements after they inaugurate the house where a fat man dressed in red lives. And we should not confuse, we should not confuse Christmas with that."

He said children "should know that, in reality, the gifts come from the efforts of their parents and with the help of Jesus." [more]

Commenting on the story, Father Ray Blake added this wise thought:

Though we do not want kindergartens of howling children complaining "Father has ruined my Christmas", I think we Catholics ought to avoid implicating ourselves in deliberately deceiving children, just incase they see the Incarnation as being equally untrue.

I have heard several young people - perhaps sincerely, perhaps not - use this very example as a reason they do not accept the faith of the Church. If parents have deceived them as children about Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, it makes some sense to them that they may also have been deceived about Jesus.

Consider, for a moment, the great energy and thought given by parents to convince their children that Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy visit their homes. Now consider, for a moment, the great energy and thought given by parents to show their children the truth of Jesus Christ. Oh, wait... It isn't equal, is it? Houston, we have a problem.

Just a thought to ponder.

Highschooler: Let's not discriminate against anyone's beliefs, including mine

Over at the Creative Minority Report, Matthew Archbold passes along a letter written by Chelsea Phelps, a junior in a Canadian school to her local paper (with my emphases):

I am a Grade 11 student at North Delta Secondary school.

When I walked into school Monday morning, I couldn’t help but notice that the bulletin board just outside of our counselor’s office did not say Merry Christmas, but rather Happy Holidays.

This bothered me and I will tell you why. Earlier this year the global unity club, which is in charge of this board, had put up displays for Eid, a Muslim tradition, and Diwali, a Hindu and Sikh tradition.

That’s not the problem – the problem for me is that they are trying to support global unity and diversity, which I will admit our school is very good at.

However, they are not willing to recognize Christmas, a once religious holiday now celebrated world wide by every almost every culture.

Christmas is one of Canada’s national holidays and, may I remind you that without it, we wouldn’t be having “winter break” as it is now known.

Why are we allowed to have a Christmas tree in the foyer of our school but the board can’t post a simple message of “Merry Christmas?”

When I asked the sponsor teachers in charge of the group, I was given nothing but endless excuses such as “it is the students’ idea; there are many holidays around this time” and, my favourite one by far, “not everyone celebrates Christmas.”

If those really were the reasons, why can’t the bulletin board say “Happy Hanukkah” one week and “Merry Christmas” the next?

It is completely unfair to say, “not everyone celebrates Christmas” because I for one do not celebrate either Eid or Diwali.

I am not trying to start a war or create a struggle. I would appreciate it if we did not discriminate against anyone’s traditions or beliefs, including mine.

Good for her!

As the "war of Christmas" builds, I remind of two of my previous posts that seem helpful to people at this time of year:

• On what "X-mas" really means, and
• On being wished, and wishing people, "Happy holidays."

Learn, and teach others.