While Brits are stuffing their faces with Turkey and all the trimmings, in Japan Christmas cuisine has a decidedly different flavour.

It’s customary for Japanese families to serve up Kentucky Fried Chicken to mark Christmas Day – a tradition that’s been obvserved for around 50 years.

But why do the Japanese do this? Why are the residents of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto more partial to a bargain bucket than a pig in a blanket?

To answer that question, we have to go back to the 1970s. 

The first KFC opened in 1970 and, so the legend goes, the manager of the store Takeshi Okawara, who would later become CEO of KFC Japan, had a brain wave one night. 

Until then, a ‘Christmas dinner’ in Japan didn’t really exist; there was no one set meal that people enjoyed.

Okawara therefore decided to launch the Christmas “party barrel”, and by 1974 “Kurisumasu ni wa, Kentakki” or “Kentucky for Christmas” had become a national campaign.

Today, around 3.6 million Japanese people gorge on the Colonel’s eleven herbs and spices, and orders are placed weeks in advance.

Failure to prepare in the major cities will see you queuing round the block for your Christmas fare.

So popular are the “party barrels”, now known as “Christmas dinner packages”, they make up a staggering third of KFC’s total annual sales in Japan, according to TimeOut.