Christmas is, naturally, a foreign import for the Japanese, which they treat pretty much like Halloween or Valentine’s Day: a fun time of year to decorate your house with colorful imagery without thinking too deeply about it. It’s a nice excuse for parents and grandparents to buy gifts for their children, to have a Christmas party complete with karaoke, to enjoy the “illumination displays” put on by almost every Japanese city and town, and to plan a date with that special person. It’s also time to enjoy what’s become a huge Japanese tradition, Christmas cake.
This custom is ostensibly based on the Christmas cake enjoyed in England, Ireland and other Commonwealth countries, but of course, has been modified to fit Japanese tastes. You can preorder a Christmas cake at thousands of patissiers, bakeries and even convenience stores, for delivery or pick-up on December 24th. Even Starbucks is getting into the spirit this year, with Christmas cake Frappuccinos and Lattes. Yum.
As with Japan’s unique Valentine’s Day tradition of girls giving chocolates to the males in their lives (which was started by a 1960 Morinaga marketing campaign), the origins of Christmas cake can be traced to a single company. In 1922, a Japanese entrepreneur named Rinemon Fujii founded the Fujiya Confectionery Company after studying baking in the U.S. and soon began selling Christmas cakes. Instead of the heavier cakes and fruitcakes which are popular in the U.K., Japan’s Christmas cakes use sponge cake, whipped cream and strawberries, because “strawberries on whipped cream look like Santa-san walking through the snow.”
Christmas cake has another (archaic) meaning, too. Back in the days when society placed pressure on women to marry by a certain age, women who hadn’t gotten married by the age of 25 were dubbed “Christmas cakes,” since no one wanted to buy one after the 25th. This is sometimes portrayed in anime has teachers who are uptight about still being single, though the word itself is no longer used.
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