#17. The 11 Herbs and Spices of Christmas

Every December, Christmas joy sweeps the streets of Tokyo. Storefronts glow with twinkling lights, trees are decorated, and standing proudly among it all, draped in red and white, is a jolly old man preparing his Christmas bounty. But this isn’t Santa Claus. Oh no—this is Colonel Sanders. And in Japan, he is Christmas.

In a delightful twist of holiday fate, Japan’s jolliest Christmas tradition doesn’t involve mistletoe or chestnuts roasting on an open fire—it involves a party bucket of fried chicken, a side of coleslaw, and a Santa suit-wearing statue of the Colonel standing proudly outside every Kentucky Fried Chicken.

This phenomenon began in the 1970s, when Takeshi Okawara—the enterprising manager of the very first KFC in Japan—overheard foreigners longing for a traditional Christmas turkey. Sensing an opportunity, he whipped up a substitute feast and called it the “party barrel.” He then launched a national ad campaign with a catchy slogan: Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii—“Kentucky for Christmas.”

Over the next few decades, what started as a clever marketing gimmick evolved into a full-blown cultural tradition. Today, families across Japan pre-order their Christmas chicken weeks in advance. Stores regularly sell out, long lines form, and there’s even a premium option that comes with champagne and cake. And somewhere, Colonel Sanders gazes upon it all, likely wondering how he went from Southern gentleman to Christmas icon.

Who needs reindeer and elves when you’ve got biscuits and gravy? In a country known for meticulous tradition and quiet reverence, it’s somehow perfect that the holiday spirit arrives not in a sleigh… but in a cardboard bucket with a side of mashed potatoes.

P.S. In 1985, fans of Japan’s Hanshin Tigers baseball team tossed a Colonel Sanders statue into a river to celebrate a championship win. The team then endured decades of bad luck, which many blamed on the Curse of the Colonel. Divers eventually recovered the statue’s body… but his left hand and glasses remain lost to the murky depths.

The Tigers wouldn’t win another championship until November 5, 2023—proof that while the Colonel’s wrath is finger-lickin’ fierce… he is also a mercifully seasoned deity.