By: Lily Kane ’20

As winter time rolls around, people have found a new “controversial” holiday topic to argue about. For the past few years, the focus of holiday debates have revolved around the Starbucks red cups.

The start of the holiday season is marked with the release of a holiday-themed cup for hot beverages at Starbucks. It is usually released shortly after Halloween. This year, the controversial cups were released into United States stores on Nov. 1.

The annual theme of the cups are focused around a red Christmas theme, yet the actual design is different each year. This year’s design consists of a red drawing on a white cup showing different items that symbolize Christmas and winter, such as hands in mittens, a stack of gifts and a christmas tree.

These cups have been up for debate for years as the new design results in the discontent of many of Starbucks’ customers. While I enjoy the winter time festivities and get excited every year to see what the cups will look like, I fail to understand why some people choose to participate in a rather heated debate over paper cups.

All over twitter, users have used the hashtag #redcups, and made rude comments about the fact that this year, the cups are not as red as usual. This is ironic because in 2015, people were furious that the cups lacked a design and were “too red,” and now people are complaining that the cups aren’t red enough. No matter how the cups are made to appeal to Starbucks’ customers, it is inevitable that some people are going to be discontent with the annual design.

I personally think the design is fine, especially because most of these cups end up in the garbage less than an hour after being handed to a customer. Seeing the cups being held in a snowy setting is enjoyable, but I do not see how getting worked up over a cup can benefit anybody.

While these cups are a staple to the holiday season, I believe that people should try to chill out regarding the cups. There are so much more pressing concerns in our society, and to focus on something as silly as the design of a Starbucks cup demonstrates a lack of perspective from our community.  I do not understand why anyone would take such offence or make these cups such a big deal, after all, they are only cups.