Why wish you a Merry Christmas when it’s more sophisticated to hope you have a Nobel Chic Christmas instead. Christmas in Japan is full of winter wonder, hearts, dreams and … white angels. Tokyo certainly still knows how to eclipse the Christmas decorations and style of other cities and puts on a commercial extravaganza. Shopping malls and department stores brand their Christmas campaigns (after all, that’s what Christmas is all about), and there seems to be a race to see who can use the most evocative English adjectives.
Long-time readers of this website might remember “Have an adjectival Christmas” back in 2009, and the colourful collection of Christmas adjectives discovered then. You could have a Bright, Charming, Heartwarming or even Precious Christmas back in 2009. I just returned from two weeks of enjoying the Christmas season in Tokyo, and not to be outdone, Christmas 2013 is very happy merry fantastic bright magical and full of wonder. (“Wonder” does seem to be the most popular choice this year.)
The first one I saw was a “White Angel Christmas” in Futako Tamagama. It had me a little perturbed, on several levels.
A little more stately was Christmas Dreams.
Complete with Peanuts characters comes a Jolly Christmas.
A major department store has Christmas Hearts.
And another department store is having a Magical Christmas.
This poster on the subway advertises Love Christmas aft a shopping mall under Tokyo’s new Skytree tower.
Tokyu Hands is having Winter Wonder Christmas in English, but says in Japanese it will be ちょっと不思議なクリスマス (perhaps translated as “a little mysterious Christmas”).
Daimaru department store is having a Fantastic Christmas.
A homewares store is having a Holly Jolly Christmas (with an added touch of a Halloween skull, just to mix things up a little).
Another homewards shop is having a Fantastic Christmas Carnival.
Another “wonder” is the Wonder of Christmas in the new Hikarie building next to Shibuya Station.
Even the restaurants in Hikarie building have a Wonder Christmas Menu.
Down in Nara, the stores in and alongside the Kintetsu railway station are not sure whether to be happy or merry. What to do? Just use both. Let’s have a Merry Happy Christmas.
Homewares store Loft has dropped Christmas and just kept the Merry.
My favourite for creativity was seen in the Hankyu menswear department store in Ginza, which is having a Noble Chic Christmas.
A more self-focused My Christmas at a plaza in Marunouchi.
It’s a Bright Christmas around the rest of Marunouchi district (especially with the illumination in the evenings).
I like a good Christmas Fever!
Finally, there’s a Dream Christmas over at Tokyo Skytree.
And of course, arising from fried chicken being a local turkey substitute for foreigners, and reinforced by a massively successful campaign back in the 1970s that has the country believing that “Christmas = chicken”, you can pre-order your chicken for Christmas from Colonel Santa. Japanese Christmas wouldn’t be the same without it.
