Not having Thanksgiving to mark an acceptable beginning to the holiday season, stores started decorating right after Halloween. Signs appeared wishing shoppers an enthusiastic “Happy Merry Christmas” and carols drifted from the sound system (not once did I hear “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”). Christmas trees of every imaginable color were erected in mall lobbies—I can kind of understand a white tree (think snow-covered), but neon pink and black? That just screams, “Ho, ho, ho,” and I’m not talking about Santa’s laugh! I have seen a few “thrones” where Santa would normally sit and listen to children’s wishes while parents take photos, but they are always vacant. I know they do have mall Santas in Japan, because the newscaster on the radio said they were being required to attend Santa classes to learn how to hold children on their knees properly to prevent injury. (If this country has a motto, it is definitely “Safety First.”)
Breaking News: Americans have not cornered the market on tacky outdoor decorations. Clark Griswold would be proud of the Japanese. I learned from my students that families usually decorate the house when the children are young, but once they have grown up and moved away from home, the decorating usually stops. This seems to be true of most of the decorated houses in our neighborhood…younger children live there. The exception is the holiday-loving neighbor across the street, whose youngest child is in his mid-20s! Up and down the streets, lights hang from eaves, drape over bushes, and drip from balconies. The Japanese are especially fond of pre-formed lighted displays, from Santa in his sleigh being pulled across the side of the house by a single reindeer, to “Merry Xmas” wired to the front gate. Apparently yards are too small to properly display the animated, pre-lit white deer that have become all the rage in the past few years, yet somehow they have found room for inflatable lawn ornaments. Each evening, the compressor is turned on, and blow-up Santas and snowmen rise from the ground like ghosts from a horror movie graveyard.
The most pervasive symbol of the Christmas season in Japan is Colonel Sanders. Huh? What does Colonel Sanders have to do with Christmas? It seems that Kentucky Fried Chicken is the meal of choice for Christmas Day. To remind customers to place their orders early, every store (at least one in every town) dresses its Colonel Sanders statue (yes, every store has one) in a red Santa suit and places a banner behind him that reads “Have a Kentucky Christmas.” I bet the Colonel never imagined his 11 herbs and spices would come to embody the spirit of Christmas in a nation of Buddhists and Shintoists.
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