The annual reveal of the Starbucks “red cup” usually brings joy at the start of the holiday season, but this year it came with controversy.

Since the red cup first appeared in 1997, it has featured different winter designs every year in celebration for the holidays.

But this year, the iconic cup is a simple ombre of bright red to dark red. The simple design has sparked outrage with some, saying that Starbucks is “anti-Christmas”. Starbucks’ vice president of Design and Content Jeffrey Fields released a statement in response: “In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs. This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.”

Starbucks coffee drinkers at BASH think the controversy is overblown.

“People need to get over it because it’s just a cup! It’s not like the design effects the coffee,” remarked Sophomore Montanna Robbins, whose favorite Starbucks drink is a caramel frappuccino.

Sophomore Sarah Babula, whose favorite drink is a gingerbread latte,

said she also did not see anything sinister in the simple design.

“It’s dumb because it’s just the color red, and red and green are Christmas colors. It’s just the color of the cup, I don’t get the big deal!”

Sophomore Haley Grabert thinks people are wasting their time worrying about the cup, and she will continue to go there to get caramel frappuccinos.

“I was just there yesterday,” she said. “There are bigger things to worry about than your Starbucks cup,”

Soon after all of the Starbucks controversy, competitor Dunkin Donuts released their holiday cup, which featured red and green colors and the word “joy” in red, surrounded by Christmas tree branches. Many speculate that Dunkin Donuts did this as a direct response to Starbucks to win over their angry customers.

However, Dunkin’ Donuts released a statement saying this is not the case: “For many years Dunkin’ Donuts has served coffee in festive cups featuring the word ‘joy’ as part of our annual celebration of the season and holiday offerings.”

Starbucks’ customers have always drawn on the plain white cups, and by giving customers a blank red canvas they can put whatever they would like on the cup. Some people reportedly have been telling the Starbucks baristas their name is “Merry Christmas”, just so that it will be written on the cup.