Starbucks holiday cups kick off the Christmas season when they release a new pattern or print each year. This tradition started in 1997 when Starbucks’s designer, Sandy Nelson, hand painted purple swirls on a magenta cup for a seasonal special. That’s right, starbucks’s iconic Holiday red would not start until 2 years later in 1999. People refer to this particular shade of candy red as joyous and exciting. The cups became a staple to the Holiday season where dedicated Starbucks customers would make an online countdown until the official Holiday season started with their first sip of Peppermint Mocha in their red Holiday cup. This year, the “official season” started November 4, 2021. The designs try to make customers feel welcomed and warm to start their busy day. Almost every year Starbucks’s red cups have been filled with winter designs and different art to uplift customers in the Holiday spirit. However, 2015’s cup caused a lot of controversy as it was just a red ombre design with the Starbucks symbol in the middle. Many enraged Starbucks fans refused to purchase a drink containing that cup because of the simplicity and unoriginality. Many people also believed that Starbucks was trying to take the “Christ” out of Christmas with the boring solid cup. Compared to the other years, 2015’s cup does lack the creativity and fun that fans love to see; however, Starbucks said that their intention was simply to create a plain ombre red cup for the Holiday season. After this disagreement, Starbucks designers made the next cup filled with 13 designs outlined in white ink. It is always a surprise to see the new fun ideas that Starbucks has to make everyone’s Holiday season more festive.