Christmas is just around the corner, and children in Japan are eagerly looking forward to it. Since most of us aren't Christians, Christmas in Japan doesn't have religious meaning. Instead, it's more of a family event to enjoy spending time together.
When I was a kid, I definitely loved it. I remember that one day, when I was around five years old, I asked my mom about Santa Claus. I was curious how Santa managed to get into our house because our house didn't have a chimney. In fact, none of the houses in our neighborhood had chimneys either.
"Mom, how does Santa get inside of our house without a chimney?" My mom answered, "Well, honey. If a house doesn't have a chimney, he gets in through a toilet window." Since then, my mom always made sure to leave the window open on the Christmas Eve. In Japan, most of houses separate toilets and bathrooms. The toilet window is normally the smallest in a house. If I were smarter back then, it was easy for me to figure out it would be impossible for a chubby guy to get in through the smallest window. I was just an innocent kid and had believed it.
To make Santa real, my mom also prepared two cups of green tea and some Japanese snacks like senbei (Japanese rice crackers) for him in a kitchen on Christmas Eve. My sister and I were so excited that it was hard for us to sleep. Our mom forced us to go to bed earlier to say like if we didn’t behave, Santa wouldn’t bring us any presents. The following mornings, my sister and I were extremely happy to find presents beside our pillows from Santa. As soon as we got up, we immediately had rushed to the kitchen to make sure if the cups of green tea and senbei had been eaten. When we saw both were empty, we believed Santa really stopped in our house to deliver gifts to us.
Although I deeply appreciate what my parents did to my sister and I, I can't help but think why I didn't realize that why my mom prepared two cups of green tea and Japanese snakes for a Western old guy. He probably didn't like drinking two cups of such bitter tea without sugar. I don't think he enjoyed hard senbei either. Anyway, it worked perfectly until I was ten. When I turned ten years old, I finally figured out Santa was actually my parents.
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That's such an interesting story. The American version is to leave Santa cookies and milk. The real question is how can he eat all that food? No wonder he's so fat :)
Thank you for taking a time to read my post. I'd never thought why Santa was overweight until reading your comment. Haha, that really makes sense!
In the UK we leave him a Mince Pie and a carrot for Rudolf.
Thank you for your story. I recall how my sister and I unintentionally rubbed the skin off our noses because we wanted them to become red like Rudolph's.
@t4up3, compared to the US and Japan, the UK sounds nicer, lol. I didn't know the UK version. Thank you for sharing!
@SEQ77 Thank you for sharing such a cute story! It's easy to imagine that cute little kids doing that!
In Spain, it is the Three Wise Men who have always brought us presents at Christmas, Yumi @yumiyumayume .
This Christmas tradition dates back to Roman times. You know that Christmas has its origins in the Roman Saturnalia, which was an agricultural festival that coincided with the winter solstice. On this feast, and I think for one day, the masters became servants and gave gifts to the people under their roof. The gifts were of all kinds, but ceramic figurines were frequent. These were the gifts that today's parents give their children every year in the name of Father Christmas or the Three Wise Men.
Christianity could not eradicate this pagan festival and, in the end, transformed it into a religious festival for Christians.
Our Wise Men come from Persia. There is no historical record of how many they were and what they were called, but they were certainly priests of a religion identified by the name of Zoroastrianism. They were astrologers and according to tradition they came to Bethlehem in pursuit of a star that represented the coming of a messiah who would save the world.
Finally, in every part of Europe, this idea has been reproduced with different personalities: Father Christmas, Sinterklaas, Olentzero, etc...
As you can imagine, it is a beautiful story that feeds the imagination of children all over the world.
最初、サンタとルドルフのためのお煎餅？と思いました。ルドルフはトナカイだけど、鹿せんべい的なやつ？なるほど、と感心しました :D
So Santa, or Father Christmas is not originally a Western guy. The original, Saint Nicholas was a Christian priest who lived in Turkey and gave gifts to the poor children as I understand it.
@druida Thank you so much for educating me. To be honest, I didn't know anything what you wrote here, so reading your comment was fascinating! It's also very interesting that in Spain three wise men deliver gifts to children.
@Aki_ さん。鹿せんべい的なやつ、あはは、なるほど～。うちの母はそこまで頭が回らなかったらしく、せんべいはサンタさんへのお菓子でしたｗ
@MusiqueGraeme Thank you for the educational comment too. I also didn't know that the original Santa lived in Turkey, and he wasn't originally a Western guy.