A few years ago the Huffington Post featured an article on the 12 dangers of Christmas.  The article focused on fire safety during the holiday season.  They covered everything from your Christmas tree drying out and catching the drapes on fire to burning down your home while preparing your roast beast. The article had me thinking, what if there were other dangers during Christmas?  What if, aside from falling off your roof while working on your light display and over roasting your chestnuts, there were hidden dangers during the season of advent that most of us overlook. So I decided to write about the dangers of Christmas we often ignore.

Now, a few years later, I want look at a few more dangers of Christmas we might ignore or be unaware of. So here we go, another 12 Dangers of Christmas

Red Cups

A few years ago the internet exploded because Starbucks, the place where we go for deep theology about Christ's birth, changed the design of it's annual holiday cup. First off, I want you to notice something, this is a holiday cup and not a Christmas cup.

Now some might argue, "well Teer, it's Christmas time, they've got Christmas trees on the dang thing. Heck it's even got a reindeer on it." In response to this outcry Starbucks changed the cups to a solid red color. One might think this would appease the masses but nope, us Christians were up in arms.

Please, take a break and hang on.

Getting this season started off on the right foot, Starbucks made the cups green symbolizing unificatiob around the election, NOT symbolizing the start of the holiday season.  And this is how the internet reacted:

Starbucks doing green cups instead of red cups is disrespectful to Christmas

— Bizzy Emerson (@bizzyems) November 1, 2016

Come on people, Christians get a bad wrap for stupid stuff as it is, then we go and pile more crap on the pile by complaining about red cups? Panties were twisted over a green cup designed to promote unity during a divisive election cycle. So what do (some) Christians do? They decide to stoke the culture war fires saying Starbucks has taken Christ out of Christmas in early November through a GREEN COFFEE CUP. Really? Is this really what the church has been called to do? Argue about a cup?

There seems to be a culture war between Christians (and by Christians I mean the real ones and not you fake ones who want to love and serve others) [I don't understand this] and those who want to rip sweet baby Jesus out of our communities. But here's the beauty of sweet 8 pound baby Jesus: he came kicking and screaming into the world, turned things upside down by telling us to love others, and then died on a cross rather than causing an armed uprising against Rome.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, if you find your theology or faith in a disposable green cup that you could care less about once you've finished drinking your $6.00 mocha then we've got to work on your theology.

And what about those disposable red Solo cups you will use at a neighbor's Christmas party? How often this season will we find comfort and sanctuary from the craziness of the season in the fruit of the vine?