Joyous greetings to all! Indeed, it’s a Happy Christmas Celebration 2023 with the locals & internationals in Tokyo. It’s a whole day event from Sunday morning service to Christmas candlelight celebration at night with the Japanese congregation then potluck dinner with the internationals. Â
How is Christmas celebrated in Japan? It’s a free country where you can coordinate big and small events, but just be cautious with your neighbors and even health protocols because of the pandemic and influenza outbreak. I had a wonderful Christmas celebration yesterday in 3 different places — in my cram school, church, and condominium.Â
Japanese Christmas Candlelight Service
For about 2 decades, I’ve regularly attended the Candlelight Christmas Service at this Japanese church. I always tagged along with my Japanese friends, my students, and their families. The 3-year pandemic disrupted this beautiful winter tradition as the church went online. Great to attend the Christmas celebration yesterday, though no usual dinner buffet yet. I was the lone foreigner here. 🙂 From the 5~6 PM solemn ceremony, I moved on to my next event — the International Christmas Party held for the first time in my city.
International Christmas Party
It’s exciting to personally meet foreigners in Japan and celebrate Christmas together right in my city. From the very solemn Christmas celebration inside a church attended purely by the locals, I cycled to a condominium-cum-cram school to attend a very international Christmas party.
A German teacher coordinated the whole event via Facebook and LINE social media. Glad to meet these lovely and lively people from the UK, the USA, Germany, Austria, South Africa, Russia, Bulgaria, Mongolia, and Vietnam. I was the only one from the Philippines, but made an impactful “scene” or an instant “star” as I wore it with a Christmas tree costume.Â
Each one brought a dish where some represented their country’s cuisine. Since I had a busy morning until early evening, I just bought & brought Philippine bananas and fresh fruits. Â
Our German host-coordinator cooked special dishes and prepared some drinks. We all enjoyed the sumptuous Christmas potluck dinner! Hope this is a good start of international friendship in Tokyo and we can meet again on other events.
The pandemic is over so we can freely gather together. How was your celebration? Did you have the traditional Noche Buena (midnight buffet)? I had a whole-day celebration from as early as 8 AM until midnight in 3 different places plus online chats with family members in different countries. I opted to continue my usual classes so my students and I could have one-on-one talks about the season and its main reason. Due to the influenza outbreak, I could not coordinate school events yet. Olives English School had a Christmas mini-party per class to keep with the excitement of all the students during this Winter season. So happy to hear that all my students chose Christmas as their favorite season and event! Check how I celebrated my Christmas 2023. Hope you had a wonderful one, too.
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