Every year, Starbucks releases its red cups to symbolize the beginning of the holiday season. The first Starbucks holiday cup was created in 1977, and the designs have differed every year since. Since the first cup was created, they have been decorated with snowflakes, reindeer,  snowmen, and ornaments. Customers have drawn on Starbucks’ cups for years, creating their own individual designs, so Starbucks had an idea for the 2015 holiday cup that would fit the ideas of customers. They released an ombre cup that went from bright red to dark cranberry, but the cup lacked a holiday design.

“Even though the cups were plain, I still wanted to go to Starbucks because the coffee is so good. Honestly, they could give it to me in an old shoe, and I’d probably still drink it. I like the new cups, but I wish they would still have solid red cups. It was cool to see how artsy people would draw on them, design things, and make things out of them.” Sara Swayngim (sophmore)

Customers all had different responses to this new design on the Starbucks holiday cups. Some customers were ecstatic because they could draw on the cup and make it their own. Other customers had a completely different reaction to the ombre cups because they claimed Starbucks was trying to erase Christmas; some customers even threatened to quit buying coffee at Starbucks because of the cups. These angered customers call the cups a “war on Christmas.” Starbucks never claimed to be a Christian company, so the lack of designs on the cups should not be a controversy against the company. Starbucks explained the reason for the simple cup design was to let customers be creative instead of designed the cups for customers.  “In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs,” Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks vice president of Design & Content, said in a statement. “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.” Starbucks did not want to limit their cups to one holiday or one design, but the company wanted to allow an open end of ideas to be represented by each cup.

“It doesn’t really bother me, but I like the cups better this year because they have a design, and I think it makes the cup cuter.” Brianna Vassey (junior)

This holiday season, Starbucks took the controversy of the previous year’s holiday cup and used the dispute to create a completely new cup design. Last year, tons of customers posted the designs they drew on the simple red cups and tagged Starbucks. This year, Starbucks invited customers to send in their unique designs and were astounded with the reaction; Starbucks received over 1,000 submissions from thirteen different countries. In the end, thirteen of the submitted designs were chosen to be the 2016 Starbucks holiday cups. The artists that were chosen come from all parts of the world and expressed their own unique visions of Christmas spirit through their designs. A brief bio of each artist can be found on Starbucks.com.

“I like the new design from this year, but honestly, they are the same to me as long as they have coffee in them.” Vaidik Patel (junior)

Instead of letting the negative controversy of the previous holiday season, Starbucks used the turmoil to create the most unique holiday cup design that they have had yet. The way that Starbucks turned around the hate they received last holiday season shows how great of a company they are. Seeing the holiday designs in the future will be interesting. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas.