What 22 Years of Starbucks Holiday Cups Tell Us About Drinkware Decoration Trends

Every holiday season, we impatiently wait for the day Starbucks drops its long-awaited holiday cups. This year, Starbucks unveiled four holiday designs, and for the most part, coffee-drinkers everywhere seem pleased. Over the years, the Starbucks holiday cup reveal has become as significant as Santa Claus, himself. A few years ago, the company even had to scratch its existing creation for a more festive look.

It's hard to believe that the coffee company's holiday cups have been around for 22 years, but according to ABC7, this is indeed the case. Thankfully, there's a video that gives us the chance to watch the evolution of the holiday cup into what it is today, and it's provided a lot of insight into drinkware trends over the years:

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Red is here to stay

For the first two years of the holiday cups, Starbucks went with a festive green and a deep purple. Come 1999, the company switched over to red, and you might say the rest is history. From that year on, there have been very few deviations from this hue. At the very least, the color is always in the collection.

2. Simplicity is key

While Starbucks has attempted to dress up its designs to include more colors, options for customization and more text, it seems the simple cups are the most successful. The majority of Starbucks' designs feature two key components: a red backdrop and white embellishments. The cups that deviate from this sometimes pull of the look, but the Starbucks' green logo looks the best in this standard equation. The 2016 lineup exemplified this the most—there were 12 designs that year, and each of them went classic.

3. Designs are better than no designs

In 2015, Starbucks went too simple: a plain red cup. There were no white embellishment or festive designs, and consumers were not impressed. Starbucks has since learned a holiday promotion needs to conjure up images of snow angels, hot cocoa and candlelight in order to fit the bill of an actual holiday cup.

The evolution of the Starbucks cup also proves one point above all: Consistency is key.