Amanda Jones ‘20:
The holiday season always brings with it many special traditions, such as cutting down a Christmas tree, exchanging gifts, and visiting loved ones. For the past 20 years, the holiday season has also brought the arrival of the much-acclaimed Starbucks holiday cup.
Beginning in 1997, the famed cup was not the now classic red, but instead was available in a bright magenta, covered with white designs. They made the switch to the staple holiday red in 1999, because it was a more “joyus color,” said the manager of Creative Design of Starbucks, Jon Cannell, in Dustin Nelson’s Thrillist article. Since 1999, the cup has been the apple red with festive pictures of snowflakes, stars, even a gingerbread village.
Over the past two years, the design of the cup has become very controversial in social media. In 2015, the Starbucks cup was designed in a plain ombre red, which shocked their most loyal customers. These angry coffee-lovers took to Twitter with their negative reactions to this cup because of the lack of holiday spirit with the design, with even President Donald Trump reacting in 2015 during a rally in Illinois: “No more ‘Merry Christmas’ at Starbucks. No more. Maybe we should boycott Starbucks. I don’t know. Seriously.”
In 2016, Starbucks had their customers design the iconic cup themselves, with Christmas lights and reindeer. Starbucks presented this idea with the hope of fostering “creativity among the customers.” 13 different holiday cups were designed by people from six different countries.
This season, the Starbucks cup was decorated white with various holiday designs. A Starbucks Newsroom article titled, “20 years of Starbucks holiday cups,” said that “the 2017 design echoes themes from cups of years past with intimate moments connected by swirls of red and white. “I think it promotes a very festive spirit and I even was at one where they had crayons on the tables so you could color your cup,” said Laura Null ‘20.
There has been much controversy over this cup too, concerning a picture of holding hands and a Buzzfeed Article titled, “People Are Saying Starbucks’ New Holiday Cup Is Totally Gay.” Recently, Starbucks released a second design for the 2017 holiday cup, now featuring the classic red color and a white heart.
However these cups are designed, the message behind them remains the same. Soloman, a barista from the Wayne Starbucks, summed up the holiday cup’s purpose as “to bring unity and peace within the world.”