If Christmas is celebrated with the family in France, in Japan Christmas is more a westernized commercial holiday like a second Valentine’s Day than a real family reunion. The dishes that the Japanese eat this day are very surprising contrary to new year in Japan where the dishes are very traditional.
Christmas in Japan クリスマス
The vision of Christmas for the Japanese is quite different from ours. Indeed, Christmas in Japan is an opportunity to declare your love to your lover and to spend a kind of second Valentine’s Day. It is important to know that there are very few Christians in Japan, so December 25th is not a holiday like in France.
It is an imported holiday without its religious aspect. Japanese people don’t have this idea of the birth of Jesus, the nativity scene etc., but mainly Santa Claus, lights, gifts, reindeers, in short the commercial side.
You will find of course Christmas trees and decorations (a bit kitsch, we admit) everywhere in Japan which take a lot of importance just after Halloween until the beginning of February in big cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe, Sapporo etc…
The little ones have of course the right to their Christmas gifts brought by Santa Claus! For the rest of the family, there are usually no or few gifts. It is also a way to meet with friends and to give gifts to each other.
What do we eat at Christmas in Japan?
As a couple
Christmas as a couple is the occasion to spend the evening together, to offer each other a gift and more if you like, and to spend it in a restaurant often foreign (Italian, French, etc…). It is not uncommon for restaurants, hotels and chic places to be full at this time.
In family
We like to eat chicken for Christmas Eve, especially at KFC. Yes, chicken KFC at Christmas in Japan ! This one is very popular, you even have to book a week in advance to get your fried chicken. KFC has been able to impose itself during this period and proposes a special Christmas menu with fried chicken, salad, champagne and chocolate cake.
In family, moreover each one eats a little what it wants, of sushi. There is no real consistency and everyone eats what he wants, and as there is no starter, main course and dessert, you can start with a pizza and end with sushi… Surprising for a westerner!
For dessert
The dessert at Christmas is the christmas cake クリスマスケーキ, a Japanese strawberry cake.
It is a pastry with a “sponge cake” base covered with a layer of whipped cream or chocolate. It is often decorated with strawberries, small figurines like a Santa Claus… It is similar to the Japanese strawberry cake, a light cake. Here is our recipe for Japanese strawberry cake.
Japanese people are really fond of strawberries, you will find them in many pastries like daifuku, the kit kat, the japanese pancakes and so on.
Hot wine
We could even see at the bottom of the Tokyo Sky tree, a Christmas market with small wooden houses like in Strasbourg! We sold hot soups but also mulled wine! Surprising mix!
Anyway, as always, Japanese people don’t do things by halves and walking in Japan at this period is quite pleasant even if the omnipresent Christmas music is quite obsessive. We wish you all a happy holiday season.