Japanese style xmas banquet

Hi,
Any idea what does a Japanese style christmas banquet or meal consist of?
Thanks.

Kentucky Fried Chicken and Strawberry Shortcake.

In other words the average Japanese don't celebrate Christmas because Japan is not a Christian country. .

No, the average Japanese do celebrate Christmas, but with Kentucky Fried Chicken and Strawberry Shortcake, and we even have Santa visiting. Turkeys and Christmas pudding has nothing to do with Christianity.

The Japanese do celebrate it, but not like Western countries. As the others said, KFC and strawberry shortcake is quite common. It's not a public holiday either.

On a side note, Christmas pudding/cake does have a very strong link with Christianity. Japan is not a Christian country so this might be a reason why it is not eaten.

On a side note, Christmas pudding/cake does have a very strong link with Christianity. Japan is not a Christian country so this might be a reason why it is not eaten.

Interesting considering the strawberry shortcake mentioned above is called ƒNƒŠƒXƒ}ƒXƒP�[ƒL (Christmas cake) in Japanese. On the otherhand, I'm from the US and never heard of Christmas cake until coming here.

Countries with more of a British influence though have a very strong Christmas cake tradition (we discussed this before on this forum, with North American posters insisting that "western countries" did not have Christmas cake), and I believe that many European countries have their own version.

Our Christmas cake (NZ, Australia) is a heavy fruitcake with or without almond icing (and we actually eat it and enjoy it, it's not seen as a "doorstopper"), so very different from the Japanese Christmas cake.

To answer the first poster, Japan's Christmas tradition isn't all that old or deep, so it isn't an occasion where people will have a banquet. As above, they have KFC (if they want to wait a really long time to buy it), and/or sponge cake with strawberries, usually with just their boyfriend/girlfriend or a few friends.

My family will be spending a night with my Japanese friend's family who has mentioned would prepare a japanese style xmas banquet or meal as dinner.

I am just curious if it is like the usual feast such as a roast turkey, ham, logcake etc.

Anyway, I understand he (my Japanese friend)has put in special effort to make our gathering a memorable and I kindly accept with gratefulness with whatever has been prepared and arranged.

Sira,

My point was that not all countries with strong Christian backgrounds share the same traditions.

Starlight,

In case you're interested here's another thread on Japanese Christmas traditions:

http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+58042

North American posters insisting that "western countries" did not have Christmas cake)

Not true. In that thread one poster stated that western countries don't typically serve ƒNƒŠƒXƒ}ƒXƒP�[ƒL (strawberry shortcake) as christmas cake. Not that they don't have any christmas cake, but that they don't use the same type of cake as the Japanese do for their version. Here's the thread:

http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?2+67656

I am just curious if it is like the usual feast such as a roast turkey, ham, logcake etc.

Starlight, is this the usual Christmas dinner in Singapore? In Japan you will definitely not have a roast turkey as most Japanese homes do not have ovens capable of roasting a turkey.

Actually I'm wondering what your friend meant by traditional Japanese xmas meal. Does he mean KFC and christmas cake (traditional xmas food but not traditional Japanese food), or does he mean traditional Japanese food (but not traditional xmas food)?

Hi yllwsmrf,
Yes, in Singapore, the usual food for xmas would be turkey, ham, sausages, logcake etc. Then it depends on individuals, may add some fried noodles or rice etc.

Basically starlight, there is no such thing as a traditional Japanese Christmas banquet, so no-one can tell you what it might include. Maybe they just plan to cook a lot of normal Japanese food, or perhaps osechi, the traditional New Year's dishes?

Thanks everybody for sharing.
I will share what I have after I have taken that meal.

yllwsmrf, here is the line I refer to: "We don't have Christmas cakes in the west". We call our cake "Christmas cake" as well, so this is just wrong. It wasn't until the next page that the poster clarified that he/she meant Japanese style-cake (which no-one would really guess from the original quote, I certainly didn't), and then the poster followed up by saying that the Christmas fruit cake is "generally disliked in the west", which is just not the case.

In NZ and Australia at least we use the same kind of cake for weddings, birthdays and other occasions as well. Most people actually like it, believe it or not.

I know that we are only talking about Christmas cake, and as such it's not a big deal, but it's part of a tendency that I have noticed recently (not only here, other places on the internet as well and even among people I know personally) for Americans (not all of course, but quite a number) in particular to assume that their beliefs and traditions represent the whole of the western world.

You can just about guarantee if someone on the internet says "in the west we....", that what they are claiming actually doesn't apply at all to many "western" countries.

I am not really bothered by it, but I comment on it when I see it because I want people to stop and think about whether they should be making such broad generalisations, and also to point out that what they said is just not true.

Anyway, offtopic again, so that's my last post on the topic of Christmas cake...

As suggested, the answer to this thread can easily be found by typing keywords like ''Christmas dinner'' on the Search engine of this very website. The following is among the thorough ones.

http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+58042

yllwsmrf, here is the line I refer to: "We don't have Christmas cakes in the west". We call our cake "Christmas cake" as well, so this is just wrong. It wasn't until the next page that the poster clarified that he/she meant Japanese style-cake (which no-one would really guess from the original quote, I certainly didn't)

Sira,

You have taken the post out of context. He clarified his meaning and to not recognize that is a misrepresentation of his position.

I know that we are only talking about Christmas cake, and as such it's not a big deal, but it's part of a tendency that I have noticed recently (not only here, other places on the internet as well and even among people I know personally) for Americans (not all of course, but quite a number) in particular to assume that their beliefs and traditions represent the whole of the western world.

You can just about guarantee if someone on the internet says "in the west we....", that what they are claiming actually doesn't apply at all to many "western" countries.

I agree that this is a widespread problem and myself try to avoid using the term "the west" or even "in America" (as that upsets some Canadians for some reason). However, and don't take this as me okaying the practice, but North America has twice the population of the rest of the English speaking western world. Obviously the other countries have their own customs and opinions but they are unfortunately of the minority that can easily (albeit unintentionally) get drowned out.

I am not really bothered by it, but I comment on it when I see it because I want people to stop and think about whether they should be making such broad generalisations, and also to point out that what they said is just not true.

Yes, I agree that its important to help people realize that their generalizations are not representative. Anyway, I didn't mean to start such an off topic discussion, and I generally agree with everything you're saying. I just wanted to point out that you and Samurai007 (the guy from the other thread) were actually of a more similar viewpoint than may have come across in this thread.

Starlight,

Let us know how your dinner goes. If it was me I'd be expecting KFC and Kurisumasu Keiki, but maybe you'll have some traditional Japanese New Year's food. Either way it sounds like a good time!

Hi,
A very surprise dinner!
We have chicken with mashed tomatoes, seafood salad, marcaroni with cheese, champagne for adults, sparkling fruit juice for the kids, ham with potato. The dessert was a cake with strawberry and white cream.
I presented the gifts to my Japanese friend's wife. The whole family opened the gifts eagerly and happily. I was glad & relieved that my gifts were quite presentable.