Christmas Traditions: Fried Chicken
Christmas is mostly a secular holiday in Japan – a country where less than 1% of the population identifies as Christian – and in the 1970s many people didn’t have established family Christmas traditions.
That’s where fried chicken came in. An international fast-food company launched its “Kentucky for Christmas” marketing campaign in 1974. Today, Japanese Christmas Day feasts often consist of buckets of fried chicken. Not only is their bearded mascot now synonymous with Santa Claus, but the brand even purveys Christmas-themed barrels of food to mark the tradition.