If you’re bored of Turkey and eggnog as your holiday feast, consider embracing Japan’s bizarre tradition of having KFC for Christmas dinner every year.
Want to go ‘authentically’ Japanese for the holidays? Prepare to line up at your local KFC for a bargain bucket.
While it’s hard to deny the Colonel’s secret recipe is pretty damn delicious, the tradition seems a tad out of place for Japanese culture – especially considering only one per cent of the country’s population is Christian.
But still, this is what KFC looks like in Japan on Christmas:
So why the bizarre tradition? Is it because Colonel Saunders sort of resembles Santa Claus? Or because fried chicken is just too delicious to turn down during the holidays?
Neither – it all started with a wildly successful marketing campaign in 1974 promoting ‘Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!’ (Kentucky for Christmas!).
The idea came when a group of tourists in Japan couldn’t track down a Christmas turkey and one suggested that a KFC was the best alternative. The company realised the marketing potential and launched its first Christmas meal which was a combo of Chicken and wine, The Sun reports.
Today, their Christmas offering includes cake and Champagne as well as the Colonel’s chicken. Lines can be up to two hours long and people often pre-order in advance.
They even have a Christmas-themed KFC commercial:
And it looks like they’re expanding their festive reach to other holidays, too:
Maybe we should bring that tradition over to the West.
Can’t say I object to a Saunders Claus or KFC for Christmas dinner…
