Japanese Christmas Traditions

Japanese celebrating Christmas? Sure it's not an official national holiday, but it's an ever growing popular custom in the land of the Rising Sun. The marketing and selling of all things cute (think Hello Kitty) is a huge billion dollar industry in Japan and images of Ol' Saint Nick with his reindeer have cut himself a nice sliver of that pie. But like all things Japanese, things are done a little differently than here in the West. How so? Well dinners are not served with a traditional turkey and all the trimmings but with a special western style meal and a Christmas cake.

So what is a Japanese Christmas cake you ask? Well it's certainly not to be confused with the traditional Christmas fruitcake that is still popular in the U.S and England.


"Fruitcake is forever."

It's definitely a matter of personal taste whether you enjoy this fruit and nut concoction but the actual longevity is undisputed with reports of holiday fruitcake being passed on as a family heirloom from generation to generation.


Ah, whipped cream frosting, my fav!

Above is an example of what a Japanese Christmas cake looks like. What? It looks like regular strawberry shortcake you say? Shush! It's Christmas cake! It consists of a special sponge cake, whipped cream and strawberries. Well, OK it is a strawberry shortcake but my hat's off if you're able to bake a successful cake like this at home. I tried to save money one year and the results came out as bad as my infamous tres leches cake attempt. Leave it to the professionals!

Like last year, Rika and I have bought one to take home to the family (this time we promise not to forget it) and it'll be mocha flavored this time.

So what's the special western meal that many Japanese families are celebrating the holiday's with this year? Well I've e-mailed Mark and the rest of the gang last year on this but it's KFC for the unaware. The Colonel's secret blend of 11 herbs and spices appear to be the choice of eats but no one seems to know how it got started that way. Check out the Japanese KFC website. Some visiting americans have commented on the sheer brillance of how a small number of corporate execs in the 70's convinced a nation that Christmas=KFC.


Here's Rika at KFC during the non-holidays.



It's starting to look at lot like xmas... ©Jeff Laitila - Sushicam.com


Saint Sanders at work. ©Jeff Laitila - Sushicam.com

Bare in mind not everyone in Japan eats chicken on Christmas day. I've read that some eat pizza. Rika has warm holiday memories of her mom cooking a good old fashioned- western style steak. I like the sound of that, hmm wonder if that can catch on here?