Christians are so mad at Starbucks

That's always been my biggest gripe with these "War on Christmas" stories. They feed consumerism and get people whipped up about putting the "Christ" back in Christmas without actually looking at basic tenets or traditions.

I'm far more offended that stores are pushing me to buy Christmas tchotchkes before Advent - let alone actually waiting for Christmastide - than I am by the store that wants its greeters to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

 

I see most of the "culture wars" stuff as nothing more than shifting demographics. We just live in a time when white Christians are seeing their strong majority and cultural presence slip away. And while most are open-minded enough to embrace and celebrate cultural diversity, some are offended and even more are afraid. So we will shall have memes about putting Christ back in Christmas in our Facebook news feeds for the next two months.

 

What's Advent? [/war-on-Christmas evangelicals]

 

I'm Jewish. My parents are Jewish. My parents' parents were Jewish.

My maternal grandfather came to this country as a 10 year old, in 1908. The boat left Europe in mid-December and arrived at Ellis Island on December 26. It was, as my grandfather recalled, a very rough passage. He was the only one of his family to not be incredibly seasick so he was charged with bringing them food from the dining room, water, etc. and he spent a lot of time exploring the ship rather than spending all day with his sick sisters and father. There was a Santa on the ship ("for the gentile kids") and he gave my grandfather candy and was as friendly to him as all the other kids. My grandfather was always grateful for this kindness from a stranger, who didn't speak Yiddish. I think it was probably the first time he had ever seen or heard of Santa.

Based on this experience, in my family, there's no religious value attached to Santa. Santa = fun, not Christianity. My maternal grandparents (raised Orthodox, kept a kosher home, etc.) used to take my mother and her sister to see Santa at Macy's in Manhattan. When I was very little, my mother would take me to see Santa. I had a Santa stuffed animal when I was little.

This Starbucks thing is RIDICULOUS. Most of the cup is covered by the plain, Starbucks-logo'd cardboard sleeve anyway. I got a coffee there the other day and I could only see a stripe of red at the top and at the bottom. I didn't even look at the cup.

When someone wishes me "Merry Christmas," I don't get all huffy and say "Happy Chanukah" back to them. I don't think they're being anti-Semitic. The professional offense-takers take the Christ out of Christmas, as far as I'm concerned.

 

The media's new mantra:

"No matter how trivial the matter, you can always find some jerkoff on Twitter who's angry about it."

 

I wish I had stock in the manufactured outrage biz.

Nice story, Dyno.

 

I don't get why conservatives are so mad about this. After all, isn't Starbucks a privately-owned business that can decide for itself whether to celebrate a holiday or not?

 

I hate Starbucks because my former boss insisted on putting us in shitty fleabag motels on corporate trips just because there was a Starbucks close by.

 

12 million views of the YouTube video that started this all. 500,000 shares.

More than just one angry Twitter poster, that's for sure.

 

I remember a poster being angry that reporters were asking Jim Boeheim about his late-game substitution patterns.

 

One angry Twitter poster and 500,000 sheep who are looking to be angry about the latest attack on Christmas/Christians.