Photo: taken from this Aldi commercial
We have a pretty unique Christmas here in the Southern Hemisphere. No snow, no jumpers, and Santa uses kangaroos to drive his sleigh. But Japan is lucky enough to have the possibility of a white Christmas as it’s winter over there (and they have spectacular Christmas light displays!) in just the last few decades, just like Halloween, Christmas has become a popular excuse to celebrate. Western Christmas traditions revolve around family, religion, gift giving, and food. Japan, on the other hand, likes to do things a little bit different.
Japanese Christmas is very much oriented towards friends or romantic couples, not family. It’s a time where lovebirds can stare lovingly into each others eyes as they have a finger lickin’ good meal consisting of fried chicken from KFC. “Kentucky for Christmas” was a campaign from 1974. When foreigners in Japan who wanted to celebrate Christmas with a traditional turkey dinner but couldn’t find any turkey, they settled for KFC chicken. Now, KFC records its highest volume of sales in the two weeks leading up to Christmas, and if you’re not prepared early enough to order your chicken in advance, you can wait up to two hours on the day for some. Christmas KFC ads are always filled with celebrities, too. Here’s the 2014 ad, how many celebrities can you spot?
Dessert will be Christmas cake, but not the fruit cake we have here. A light sponge cake with plenty of cream and strawberries is the most popular choice not only for Christmas but just generally year round in Japan. Strawberry shortcake is available at all convenience stores, patisseries, and supermarkets, as well as cafes and restaurants. It’s a very simple cake in terms of flavour, but the decorations are always immaculate. It’s such a common cake that it’s included as an emoji in your phone keyboard now! Both as a whole cake, and as a slice, these little pictures symbolise just how prevalent it is in Japanese culture.
Photo: La Fuji Mama Japanese Strawberry Shortcake
Try making a strawberry shortcake for your own Christmas this year! This recipe from La Fuji Mama is easy to follow and will please any crowd, Japanese or not.
Japan celebrates Christmas quite differently to Australia, which again is different to everywhere else. If you’re celebrating overseas this year, let us know what you’re getting up to in the comments! There’s only 16 days until Christmas, have you started thinking about what you’re going to eat?!
Couples and friends may be the focus of December 25th, but New Years is a much bigger family-centered celebration in Japan. It goes over several days, has its own traditional food, Osechi ryori, and many temple and shrine visits.
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