"Happy Holidays" and the "War" on Christmas
Christian Witness as Prayer and Active Love
About the author: Nancy J. Duff is the Stephen Colwell Associate Prof. of Christian Ethics, Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary. She taught Christian Ethics at Princeton Seminary for 25½ years before retiring in December 2020. She published a book on death and dying titled Making Faithful Decisions at the End of Life(Westminster John Knox, 2018) and recently co-edited a book of Paul Lehmann's essays with Ry O. Siggelkow and Brandon K. Watson, The Revolutionary Gospel: Paul Lehmann and the Direction of Theology Today (Lexington/Fortress, 2022). She has served on the Ethics Committee at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center for over 25 years and is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In 2015 the coffee giant, Starbucks, released a simple red holiday coffee cup, which, unlike in years past, was devoid of Christmas images. The cup was simply poppy red at the top fading into cranberry with, of course, the Starbucks logo on one side. A conservative Christian internet evangelist, Joshua Feuerstein took offense, charging in an online video that Starbucks was trying to take Jesus out of Christmas: “Starbucks removed Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus… Do you realize that Starbucks wanted to take Christ and Christmas off of their brand new cups? That’s why they’re just plain red.” To be clear, Jesus never appeared on previous Starbucks Christmas cups. The symbols on previous years’ cups included holly, carolers, reindeer, Christmas trees, packages, and ornaments. They were, in other words, cultural images of Christmas. And, as always, in 2015, Starbucks offered gift cards, cookies, and CDs that included symbols or songs associated with Christmas. Starbucks “war” on Christmas came down primarily, but not entirely, to the unadorned cup.
Claims of a “war on Christmas” were also aimed at Starbucks staff as well as clerks in other stores, because they were saying “Happy Holiday” instead of “Merry Christmas” to their customers. In his video, Feuerstein asked if people knew “that Starbucks isn’t allowed to say ‘Merry Christmas’ to customers” and claimed to have pranked them by telling the barista that his name was “Merry Christmas,” so the greeting would have to be written on his cup. His accusation that Starbucks had entered the “war on Christmas” spread around the internet and garnered enormous support, including then presidential candidate, Donald Trump. Not known to be a religious man, Trump suggested that perhaps there should be a boycott of Starbucks, even though one was housed in Trump Tower. He also claimed that if he became president, “we’re all going to be saying Merry Christmas again.” By 2017, Feuerstein’s video had been viewed over 17 million times. While the outrage over Starbucks cups has since died down, some Christians continue to claim that there is a war on Christmas and believe that being greeted with "Happy Holiday" instead of “Merry Christmas” is a form of persecution.
I have to wonder, if Christians genuinely want to protect the integrity of their faith, why would they want "Merry Christmas" to be said to someone who does not celebrate Christmas or worship the Christ child? Does it not cheapen the Christian meaning of the greeting if it is addressed to everyone, no matter what their faith, and if everyone is expected to say it in return? And do not Christians have far more serious matters to occupy their attention during Advent and Christmas than how a multi-billion-dollar coffee company chooses to decorate its disposable cups or how store clerks greet customers? I believe the arguments over the secular symbols of Christmas disappearing from disposable coffee cups and the ongoing objections to the greeting, “Happy Holiday,” have less to do with defending the integrity of the Christian faith than with wanting to protect the notion that the United States is a Christian nation. Starbucks’ unadorned cup and the greeting, “Happy Holiday,” acknowledge the diversity of our culture and that Christmas is not the only holiday celebrated during December. The Jewish holiday Hanukkah, for instance, falls in the same month. Those who claim there is a war on Christmas are refusing to accept that not all US citizens are Christian. And those who claim that “Happy Holiday” is a form of persecution are simply providing an excuse to discriminate against those who do not celebrate Christmas.
In a 1958 Christmas prayer given at a local prison, Karl Barth remembered before God all the “darkness and suffering of our time.” His understanding of “darkness and suffering” was a far cry from the “persecution” some people claim to experience in having to endure unadorned holiday cups and the greeting “Happy Holiday.” Barth prayed for “the sick and the mentally ill, the needy, the refugees, the oppressed and the exploited, the children who have no good parents or no parents at all.” He also prayed for those who are called on to help: government officials, civil servants, educators, authors, medical staff, preachers of God’s word, and congregations both near and far. We remember them all, he said, when we implore God “to let the light of Christmas shine brightly.”1
As we consider coffee cups with or without cultural images of Christmas, or how to greet one another at Christmas in a world reeling with suffering and strife, perhaps during Advent and Christmas, we could consider a scene from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Early in the story, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his old partner, Marley, who, before leaving, beckons him to look through the window. Outside, Scrooge sees phantoms and hears them wail with lamentation and regret. What is the source of their anguish? Although their lives on earth had revolved around money and greed, they now existed in a realm where wealth no longer mattered. While they longed to help others, the opportunity has passed; they can help no one. According to Dickens, “The misery with them all was clearly that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power forever.”2
This does not have to be true for us. We have the power to help others. While we can delight in the secular joys of Christmas such as trees and Santa Claus, snowmen and elves, and even red coffee cups, we can focus our more serious attention on the One who defines Christmas: the Christ, who was born in a manger and who died on a cross, for us, and who calls us to act on behalf of the least of the brothers and sisters (Matthew 25:40-45). The best way for us to celebrate Christmas in the public realm has nothing to do with coffee cups or Christmas greetings, but with bringing good news to the poor and release to the captives, to fill the hungry, and to let the oppressed go free (Luke 1:53 and 4:19).
Karl Barth, Deliverance to the Captives (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1978), 150-1.
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Stories (New York: The Modern Library, 1955), 27.