Last weekend I was walking around Shinjuku for dinner after a day in Enoshima and came across a department store window display for Christmas, “Finding Wonder Christmas” is what it claimed. I only got photos of two of the window displays — it’s not easy with the huge crowds in the area.
I know that most Asian countries see Christmas as nothing more than a fun commercial holiday — I had to explain to my students in China that it’s supposed to be an important religious holiday — but I wasn’t expecting Japan to get into the holiday spirit quite so early. A few weeks ago I noticed Christmas light displays popping up in shopping areas.
These window displays caught my attention because I couldn’t quite understand the connection to Christmas. It looks like the designers got their ideas about the holiday from Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
