[WaicurtaitfuT]

This thread is quite old, but I'll answer anyway as a post is never too old to reply to on this forum.

Having lived the middle third of my life in Japan I would have to vote for New Years. When I was younger it was always Christmas with the relatives all coming to the house, the big dinner, the presents. It was a fantastic time.

After I moved to Japan I was shocked that the Japanese didn't celebrate Christmas. I even had to work on Christmas day most of the years as it was just another day. I really missed Christmas.

But after a few years I really began to dig the way the Japanese celebrated New Years. The whole country closed down for like a week and everyone ate great food, drank, slept, ate and drank again, watched TV, laughed, visited relatives, visited shrines, etc. All in all it was a most festive and great time and I really looked forward to it.

Christmas went by the wayside and even today I still do not get excited about Christmas as I feel it is too commercialized and is just for kids. Besides, there is no festive atmosphere and one must go to work the following day. One day and it's all over! How boring.

These days, if we do not visit Japan, I still schedule at least 3 or 4 days off, my wife makes traditional Japanese food for the occassion and we just enjoy ourselves by having soba and sake at midnight, watching College football on TV on NY day while drinking sake and eating omochi, sushi, kamaboko, and other traditional dishes.

My vote is New Years-Japanese style