Situations · 16 October 2026 · 4 min read
How Japan celebrates Christmas: Christmas Eve, cake and chicken
Christmas in Japan looks familiar from a distance: lights, trees, presents and carols in every shop. Up close it is a different holiday. It is not a public holiday, it is not a family day, and dinner is fried chicken and a strawberry cake. Here is how Japan celebrates it, how it hands over to New Year a week later, and the Japanese that goes with it.
Christmas Eve is the main event
25 December is an ordinary working day in Japan. Christmas Eve, クリスマスイブ (kurisumasu ibu), is the night that matters, and it is mostly a night for couples: dinner out, a walk under the lights, a present. Restaurants book up weeks ahead. Inviting one person out on the 24th reads as a date, so choose your words if you mean it as friends.
Only a small share of people in Japan are Christian, so for most the season is about winter, giving and going out rather than religion. Churches do hold services, and many welcome visitors.
Cake and chicken
The Christmas cake, クリスマスケーキ (kurisumasu kēki), is a light sponge with whipped cream and strawberries, nothing like a fruit cake. Fried chicken became the Christmas dinner after a fast food chain's advertising campaign in the 1970s, and it stuck. Both are ordered in advance. 予約受付中 (yoyaku uketsuke-chū), now taking orders, goes up in shop windows from early November, and anything not ordered can sell out on the 24th.
The lights
Winter light displays, イルミネーション (iruminēshon), go up in city centres, parks and outside stations from November, and many stay up into the new year. Most are free to walk round. 一緒にイルミネーションを見に行きませんか (issho ni iruminēshon o mi ni ikimasen ka) is how you suggest going together.
Straight on to New Year
Christmas decorations come down on the 25th and the New Year ones go up the next morning. New Year, お正月 (oshōgatsu), is the family holiday: people travel home, eat New Year food together and visit a shrine or temple in the first days of January. Many shops and offices close for several days around 1 January, which catches visitors out far more than Christmas does. Look for 年末年始 (nenmatsu nenshi), the year-end and New Year period, on opening-hours signs.
The Japanese you need
- メリークリスマス (merī kurisumasu): Merry Christmas.
- クリスマスケーキを予約したいです (kurisumasu kēki o yoyaku shitai desu): I'd like to order a Christmas cake.
- 予約しています (yoyaku shite imasu): I have an order. Say it when you collect.
- よいお年を (yoi otoshi o): have a good New Year, said as a goodbye up to 31 December.
- あけましておめでとうございます (akemashite omedetō gozaimasu): Happy New Year, said only from 1 January.
The last two are the pair to get right. Saying あけましておめでとうございます before New Year has arrived is the usual mistake.
Common questions
Is Christmas a holiday in Japan? No. 25 December is a normal working day. Most schools break up for winter around then, and the real holiday is New Year.
How do you say Merry Christmas in Japanese? メリークリスマス (merī kurisumasu), the English in katakana. Almost every Christmas word is English written in katakana, so if you can read katakana you can read the season.
Why do people in Japan eat fried chicken at Christmas? It started with an advertising campaign in the 1970s and became a habit. Turkey is hard to find, and few Japanese kitchens have an oven big enough to roast one.
In Japan, Christmas Eve is a date night. New Year is the family holiday.