Nowadays it’s widely known that Japan celebrates Christmas with KFC, originating with a near genius marketing campaign.
Takeshi Okawara, enterprising manager of the first KFC in Japan, started the tradition as a one-store campaign in the 70’s and it just stuck.
And can we blame people? KFC is “finger lickin’ good” for a reason.
Plus it’s an easily fulfillable tradition, just pre-order your meal and KFC Christmas is set. As a couple’s holiday it also makes more sense to go simple on the dinner front.
So since it’s our *second ever Christmas in Japan, we had to go for KFC– or Kentucky (ケンタッキー) as it’s commonly called here. Here’s how it went!
Table of Contents
How to get your Mitts on KFC for Christmas
We started our foray into ordering KFC on their Japanese website. They make the process quick and easy-ish.
Just remember to order a couple weeks in advance if you want the best prices – they have early bird deals in mid-November that we missed!
1. Click on the large and rather obvious Christmas-order banner
With chrome’s built-in translate feature on it’s easy. (Not sponsored but I wish!)
You’ll be taken to their store-select page, and from there presented with a million different options and times.
2. On another tab, go to the KFC menu again
So you can see their list of various Christmas buckets, packs, sides, and special items. They had some cool stuff like premium roast chicken and stuffed chicken breast.
3. Pick your Christmas Set
This had me a little vexed, but you basically pick out the dinner set you want, then pick the corresponding pickup time.
Click to enlarge images
4. Add your set and sides to the cart
Once you’ve added the set and sides you want to your cart, register an account and proceed to payment.
5. Register a KFC account
I recommend making the account so you can verify that your order went through!
6. Save the email/confirmation number for your pickup.
The KFC Christmas Experience (How'd it Taste?)
We decided on the Christmas “S” Pack, and a Biscuit/Potato side box (the very cutely named “bispote”ビスポテ box). The “S” Pack included 4 original chicken pieces, 3 tenders, and 10 nuggets.
We walked to our local KFC for pickup (conveniently a 10 minute walk away lol), and since our time was 7:30pm, there was no line.
We showed the clerk our confirmation number, and they immediately produced the boxes. They were clearly prepared.
The boxes were packed neatly with paper to absorb the oil and keep things separate. The chicken came in one box, with paper bags containing 5 nuggets each, and another sachet with ketchup, honey-maple drizzle, and napkins.
I’m not someone who eats lots of chicken nuggets, but the KFC nuggets were some of the best chicken nuggets I think I’ve had.
The tenders were also an interesting experience.
The crust reminds me of the crust you’d get on a spicy chicken burger at other fast food restaurants– minus the spicy spice. Although the inside was the same consistency as the nuggets.
The original chicken was, well, KFC.
The quality was no more amazing than your typical KFC run, but the pomp and circumstance of ordering and devouring it on Christmas Eve was insanely fun.
In the end, it was plenty of food, and we had KFC leftovers for breakfast the next day. Plus there were no dishes or stress, which is a nice change of pace for the holidays.
I can definitely see us getting KFC for Christmas in the future. Would you get KFC for Christmas?
*When we studied abroad in 2017, neither of us had KFC for Christmas that year. But that’s another blog. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!