It may seem unorthodox – a praise tribute dedicated to the color of a coffee chain’s paper cups – but considering the emotions allied with such festive disposable dishware this one goes out to the red holiday Starbucks cups.
Growing up in the Midwest I remember when the onset of the holiday season was marked by the overnight construction of department stores’ red and green displays the annual commencement of teens’ fixation with the ‘N Sync Christmas CD and the first showing of white precipitation flurries for which every child anxiously awaits.
Though retailers have had their extravagant holiday displays exhibited since before Halloween and I have had the ‘N Sync Christmas CD spinning for about a week the lack of snow in Southern California has me in a holiday slump.
Charlie Brown puts it best in “A Charlie Brown Christmas when he makes the statement: Christmas is coming but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.” You said it Charlie Brown.
My consolation – the one thing I can rely on to help me escape the 70-degree weather and West Coast substitute of wetsuits for pea coats – is the Starbucks holiday collection.
Since the chain released its annual series of holiday coffee flavors specialty drinks and those festive little red cups earlier this month I’ve found myself struck with a pang of Christmas spirit every time I walk into a Starbucks store (which according to my wallet is far too often). The atmosphere renders my yearning to sit in the picture window with old friends while laughing and sipping hot chocolate.
I know that someone somewhere is reading this and scoffing at my association of Christmas with commercialism. But for me that’s not what the Starbucks holiday collection is about.
Especially at a Christian university like Pepperdine many expect me to acknowledge Christmas primarily as a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ – and I do. I would never think of disrespecting that tradition and it truly is the real meaning of Christmas. But somewhere along the line that “meaning” of the holiday season transformed into something much more extensive to all religions.
I’m not talking about a culture’s adoption of the symbolic fat man in a red suit bearing gifts the bizarre concept of erecting a fir tree to stand in your living room for a month or even the common practice of exchanging gifts on Dec. 25. I’m talking about the exercising of values for which this one month of the year calls – the “Christmas spirit” that comes out in all of us.
Christmas used to be about the right things. Once again referencing the “Peanuts” classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas Linus explains, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace good will toward men.’ That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.”
When I was younger this embodiment of human compassion was what comprised the sentiment of Christmas – “the way you’re supposed to feel” – because I didn’t know any different. But with maturation comes a loss of blind acceptance of the human values we should uphold all the time not just when December rolls around. And as college students we are at the height of the “mature” facade. Christmas spirit unfortunately fades.
While mass-produced paper products do not in themselves beget such spirit the holiday cups at Starbucks represent many of the values the season encompasses – cheer togetherness and simple pleasures.
So I salute you red holiday Starbucks cups for bringing back the Christmas spirit I temporarily lost and reminding me that it doesn’t matter where you are – snow or not Christmas lives inside you.