Comment by girzel

I love how traditions get skewed as they pass through multi-national/-cultural lenses. I live in China, and any time I go into a 7-11 around this time of year they shout at me about "Christmas cakes". After a few half-hearted explanations on my part about how Christmas doesn't really involve cake (explaining pudding is just way beyond the pale), I finally figured out that the Chinese 7-11s are all run by a Japanese company (which explains why they're efficient and not depressing), and that the Japanese have decided that "Christmas cake" is a thing. And so, the Chinese have followed suit. You have to hand it to the Japanese -- they may transform your traditions into something unrecognizable, but they do it so thoroughly that you often start to suspect your own memory...