Christmas - A Japanese Christmas

While Christmas is considered a holy day, its still celebrated around the world. In Japan, very few are actually Christian, maybe 1% are. But they love the holiday anyway, its just celebrated differently. Christmas eve is considered to be a romantic holiday, similar to Valentines day. And if you didn't get a date by then, its best you don't show up alone the next day. During this evening, couples go out for a romantic dinner, or get a romantic themed Christmas gift. It's a time to be with your friends. New Years is when your with family. They are so into lighting everything, its said they have some of the best lighting displays in the streets. Believe it or not they eat fried chicken, mostly that. But also a special little cake its simply called "kurisumasu keki", its a light sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries. Basically its a strawberry shortcake, they use it for birthdays too. The Christmas tree was introduced into Japan by Christian missionaries. But the first modern tree appeared in Ginza in around 1910. Originally it was decorated with small paper fans, lanterns and a variety of origami such as birds, animals and even Santa. You can see what that looks like in the image. By 1920 they were the ones mass producing the decorations for the rest of the world, they made the artificial trees (made from aluminum), and all the toys.