No snowflakes = hating Jesus?

... a former pastor ... criticizing Starbucks for removing "Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus."

Are you serious???

Exactly what do some people think Christmas is about?

So here's what this is about.  Look at the cups in the image above.  These are this year's "Christmas season" cups at Starbucks.  Now they are under fire for "waging a war on Christmas".   You can read the whole story here.  Below is an excerpt that gives the essence of the "problem" -

Starbucks removed the usual array of decorative images such as Christmas trees and snowflakes that adorned the cups in previous holidays with a simple red cup with their green and white logo.

While many people do associate "Christmas" trees and snowflakes with "Christmas" - what do they have to do with Jesus Christ - the real reason that Christians are supposed to be celebrating "Christmas"?  

Absolutely nothing!

Snowflakes

Let's get real on this one.  Snowflakes were around a long time before the birth of Christ.  

The first instance of snow in the Bible - going by it's printed order - is in Exodus 4:6 -

Ex 4:6 Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.

This was thousands of years before the birth of Christ.

BTW - while we do celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus in December - the actual time of His birth was more likely in the spring.  

If we go by the order in which the books of the Bible may have been written, Job is likely the oldest.  In that book we see where Job says about God -

Job 37:6 He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’
and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’

If anything, this one puts the first reference to snowflakes as being even earlier that the one in Exodus.

"Christmas" trees

I made reference earlier to the birth of Christ likely being in the spring - not the end of December.  At least part of the reason for choosing December had to do with the timing of pagan traditions.

From the history.com site - writing about Christmas trees, we find -

In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.

 and

Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.

Oops.  Kind of makes one wonder about "Christmas" trees. doesn't it?

To bear that out -

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

Conclusion

So tell me - where is the real war on "Christ"(mas)?

Is it Starbucks - for removing "Christmas" tree and snowflakes from their cups -
the pagan originated tree and the snowflakes that were around thousands of years before the birth of Christ?