Dunkin’, formerly Dunkin’ Donuts, stopped using the word “Christmas” but still celebrated Ramadan and Pride Month in 2026.
In mid-November, people shared a rumor that the coffee-and-doughnuts chain Dunkin’, formerly Dunkin’ Donuts, stopped using the word “Christmas” but still celebrated Ramadan and Pride Month earlier in the year.
The claim served as the latest chapter in what has become known as the “war on Christmas,” a long-running debate in which generally conservative-leaning politicians and commentators have alleged bad-faith actors aimed to remove Christmas from society, particularly in the United States. In the past, that “war” extended to Starbucks’ holiday-themed coffee cups, with outraged voices failing to mention the company has for many years sold a special “Christmas Blend.”
The Dunkin’ claim first started circulating on Nov. 11 when conservative Instagram user Josh Seiter posted a video (archived) with the caption, “Dunkin’ celebrates Ramadan and Pride but hates Christmas.” His Instagram account, with 2.4 million followers and a bio identifying him as Christian and a political and cultural commentator, displayed videos promoting similar claims about other brands.
In the video, Seiter says Dunkin’ has “some explaining to do,” citing alleged examples from 2026 of the chain’s Ramadan-themed specials, Pride Month-themed celebrations and no mention of Christmas or any “Christmas meals” on the company’s website. He then alleges the company intentionally omits the word “Christmas” from corporate materials, citing purported authoritative and trusted sources.
Seiter addresses Dunkin’, “I wanna know why you have no problem using the words ‘Ramadan’ and ‘Pride’ but you can’t bring yourself to use the word ‘Christmas.'”
Others reposted Seiter’s video on Facebook (archived), X (archived) and other platforms, as well as made their own videos (archived) spreading the rumor. Snopes readers also searched this website and emailed us about the matter.
In sum, Seiter’s claim was false. He failed to present the full context of the images he displayed in his video, whether they were misleading, outdated, of international origin or otherwise missing context.
For example, he showed Ramadan specials from the Dunkin’ regional pages for Egypt and Singapore without making note of the countries, which have large Muslim populations. He also didn’t mention both of those regional Facebook pages featured messages of “Merry Christmas” last year, nor did he highlight past posts displaying the word “Christmas” on the U.S.-based Dunkin’ Instagram page.
Snopes emailed Seiter at an address listed on his Facebook page, which bounced back with a failure notice. We also messaged him via Messenger, asking if he researched the specific sources of the images and graphics shown in his video prior to making his content, if he could name examples of what he called “Christmas meals” that Dunkin’ supposedly lacked and if he could tell us what inspired him to make the video. We also emailed Dunkin’ to ask about the video and will update this article if we receive further details.
Breaking down the alleged controversy
In Seiter’s video, he makes various claims about Dunkin’ while displaying numerous examples of flyers and photos as his purported supporting evidence.
His first displayed example of a flyer promoting special Ramadan hours appeared to apply to a single store in 2024 in Cary, North Carolina — a town reportedly home to a large Muslim population. With a reverse image search, we located the apparent original post of the flyer on a Raleigh, North Carolina, Facebook page.
Seiter’s second and third examples showed flyers for specials named “Eid-credible Delights” and “Happily Ever Iftar.” Those two flyers appeared on the Singapore-based Dunkin’ Facebook page (@dunkindonuts.sg), not the U.S.-based page.
The fourth example about a “Ramadan specialty drink” flavored with pistachio originated from the Egypt-based Dunkin’ Instagram page (@dunkineg).
Regarding those two sources, the Singapore and Egypt Dunkin’ regional pages both posted messages reading “Merry Christmas!” in December 2025.
Seiter’s first Pride Month example originated from a 2024 post on a Facebook page named Taneja Restaurants for a single store based in Minnesota. In December 2025, that same page posted a message including the words “Happy Holidays” and “Merry Christmas.”
His second and third Pride Month examples dated back to news releases from Dunkin’ or its owner, Inspire Brands, in 2019 and 2021. We didn’t locate any mentions of Pride Month, which takes place annually in June, on the Dunkin’ website or the U.S.-based Instagram page during or surrounding the month in 2026.
Seiter continued, “With Christmas around the corner, I went to see what Christmas meals you had and noticed you don’t even mention the word ‘Christmas’ anywhere on your website or anywhere in your stores.” As noted before, we reached out to ask what he meant by “Christmas meals.”
A search of the U.S.-based Dunkin’ website for the word “Christmas” found more than 30 mentions, with most of them dating back several years. At the same time, the U.S.-based Dunkin’ Instagram page has displayed mentions of the word “Christmas,” or featured Christmas-themed posts, in recent years, for example at least twice in 2022 (including a post with a Christmas tree), numerous mentions in 2023, 2024 and a Christmas tree video from 2025 mentioning it’s never too early to begin celebrating the Christian holiday.
Seiter ends his video by showing two images he says he “Googled” supposedly featuring authoritative and trusted sources that confirm Dunkin’ intentionally omits the word “Christmas” as some sort of corporate policy. However, those images appeared to feature information generated with artificial intelligence, such as answers from Google’s “AI Overview” or the Gemini tool website — tools Seiter previously said he was “exposing” as “evil” in another video (archived).
An exhaustive look back at hundreds of posts on the U.S.-based Dunkin’ Instagram page found that the company usually announces its “holiday” cups and special offerings around the beginning of November, to account for all of the popular holidays during the season, including Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas, among others.
Also in 2026, ahead of the Fourth of July Dunkin’ shared patriotic posts — including mentioning the Founding Fathers and promoting an eagle-shaped cup — and did not share Pride Month content. The company also offered free donuts to veterans and active military members for Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
For further reading, we previously covered a Starbucks cup controversy in which critics said the coffee chain removed all mentions of Christmas from its red holiday cups because “they hate Jesus.”
