Hello, this is the season for surprise gifts and my gift to you is a brand new episode of

50 Things That Made The Modern Economy.

But also, glad tidings!

50 Things That Made The Modern Economy Season 2 is going to be launched in March, together

with another new podcast from the BBC World Service called 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter.

If you're not already subscribed to this podcast, you may want to do that.

Catch up with the first 50 odd episodes, and then in March, surprising new stories of everyday

inventions and their far-reaching consequences. We'll start to drop into your listening gadget

like Sat Summers into a Christmas stocking.

50 Things That Made The Modern Economy With Tim Harford

A curious ritual takes place each year in Japan. It's called

Kurizuma-Soon-Niwa-Kantaki, or Kentucky for Christmas. The habit of eating Kentucky-fried chicken

from the 24th of December. It began as an inspired bit of marketing when KFC noticed in the 1970s

that expatriates who craved Christmas turkey were turning to fried chicken as the closest available

substitute. It since become a popular Japanese tradition. There are cues around the block,

and customers will pre-order their chicken as early as October.

Christmas Of Course is not a religious holiday in Japan, where a tiny minority of the population

is Christian. But Kurizuma-Soon-Niwa-Kantaki demonstrates how easily commercial interests can

hijack religious festivals, from Duwali in India to Passover and Rosh Hashanah in Israel,

but most notoriously, Christmas in America. Why, after all, does Santa Claus wear red and white?

Many people will tell you that the modern Santa is dressed to match the red and white colors

of a can of Coke, and was popularized by Coca-Cola's advertising in the 1930s. A good story.

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