Dec 28, 20152 min read

Christmas in Japan

Spending Christmas away from family is something that my husband and I have grown accustomed to, but it doesn’t mean we don’t miss the festivities back home. This year, our first major holiday here in Japan, Thanksgiving, set the bar kind of high for the holiday season and we were dead set on making the most of the most wonderful time of the year even though we are spending it thousands of miles away from home. We are lucky enough to have my mom in town for the month of December, and Christmas in Japan honestly felt a lot like Christmas anywhere else.

My mom and I spent Christmas Eve in the kitchen making us all a big holiday dinner. We had some of our favorites like fried chicken, baked macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, cabbage, and corn bread. I even made some peanut butter cookies for “Santa” in my Nu Wave Oven (we don’t have a traditional oven in our apartment in Japan, which, apparently, is totally normal here). It was wonderful to have a taste of home and, after our annual tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve, we lounged around and watched one of my favorite holiday movies, Elf.

The next morning, Christmas in Japan was underway and we woke up bright and early to open our gifts. I got just about everything I really wanted this year and loved that I was able to somehow surprise my husband and mother with gifts they weren’t expecting (they usually both guess exactly what I’ve gotten them well before Christmas morning). We lounged around and snacked on leftovers before heading to dinner at Ruth’s Chris, where we feasted on delicious wagyu steaks and enjoyed a festive evening with one of my husband’s teammates and his family. All in all, Christmas in Japan was a success and reminded me that holidays are what we make them. Here’s what I wore to our Christmas dinner at Ruth’s Chris.