alt title(s): Twenty Five Year Old Woman
Buying a cake for
Christmas is a Japanese tradition. Unfortunately, no matter how tasty a Christmas cake is, no one wants it after December 25th. And no matter how attractive a woman is, no Japanese male will want to marry her after she's 25. Thus, "Christmas Cake" is used as a metaphor term for what Western audiences might call an "old maid."
A stereotypical ideal for a Japanese woman is to be married by age 25, after which she would quit whatever menial
Office Lady type job she held in order to become a housewife. While attitudes have started to somewhat change, it is still a common trope for a character to at least be surprised that another isn't married yet by this age. Even when the writers are sympathetic to the character, nagging to marry will still come from someone, usually her parents. It also may manifest in much the same way as American sitcoms portray a character turning 30, especially the first time she's addressed as "
Oba-san". If even that doesn't seem to bother her, she may be a
Cool Big Sis. Sometimes this is just a device to explain
them hanging around.
On the antagonistic side, the minioness
Punch Clock Villain is often a
Christmas Cake. Her looks are fine, but she has an annoying personality trait or vulgar habit. The other problem occurs if she's also stuck in a
Pink Bishoujo Ghetto or any such place usual men are slim pickings. The
Competence Zone might force her to hang around and even fawn over men
much younger than her.
Contrast with the
Hot Shounen Mom, both of which are lusted after by the
Cake Eater.
Examples:
- OL (Oruchuban Ebichu, aka Ebichu Minds The House)
- Weda (Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu)
- Haruka Urashima (Love Hina: reminded of single status and called "Oba-san")
- Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa (Azumanga Daioh: nagged by mom and frequently teased by Yukari)
- Linna Yamazaki in Bubblegum Crisis 2040 has to deal with her parents who not only nag, but set up meetings (omiai) for her with potential partners.
- Dominura (Simoun, unusually old for a Sibylla).
- Mahoromatic turns the idea into a gag, where a much older Suguru is shocked to find his old boy-chasing teacher looking exactly the same.
- Nanako Kuroi (Lucky Star), 27 and still single. After hearing her students discuss the christmas cake/unmarried woman metaphor earlier in the episode she actually buys a Christmas cake after the 25th and proclaims (as she walks into the sunset) "You are wanted".
- Further joked about when Nanako meets Kona's cousin Yui and assumes because she is alone at a festival that she is also unmarried at an advanced age. And keeps referring to this since she thinks that Yui is single at the same age (thus supporting her position). Yui however is married, but with a husband seems to always be off at work and offscreen. Everyone but Nanako just finds it embarrassing.
- Deanna Troi on Star Trek The Next Generation, at least as far as her mother is concerned. Notable in that Lwxana never thought being married should restrict her activities except for who she slept with, and holds the same views with regards to her daughter; she just wishes her daughter would hurry up and get hitched.
- Mai Valentine in Yu-Gi-Oh: doesn't really seem to want to get married (one of her duels actually was against her "fiancée", the actor Jean-Paul), as her tastes may point to younger men, AKA Joey (despite Word Of God from Takahashi himself) or possibly Varon. This would explain what an adult woman is doing on an island playing card games with children. (She's not the only adult, but most of the people are children.) Then again, card games are a Serious Business, and she does state she just wants the outrageously large prize money.
- Katisha in Gilbert And Sullivan's The Mikado pursues the much younger Nanki-Poo as a lover despite his vehement protests (he even runs away just to avoid her) though she's mostly played sympathetically and ends up with someone her own age at the end.
- Mari Iijima (voice actress for Minmay in Macross) mentions this trope by name in the DVD commentary for Macross episode 9, on the ADV release. "We are like Christmas Cakes"
- Mika-sensei from Doki Doki School Hours is 27 and still lives with her parents. She doesn't mind though, since she loves to be spoiled by her father and cares mostly for good food. Her mother is worried though and sets her up for a date for an Arranged Marriage, which doesn't turn out too well.
- Yomiko Readman of Read Or Die is 25 years old and lives by herself in an apartment full of used books. She used to have a boyfriend/lover in Donnie Nakajima, but he died...and it turns out that Yomiko was the one who sent him to his end (according to the manga storyline).
- Megumi Takani from Rurouni Kenshin. She's more exactly 23 years old, but Sanosuke pretty much calls her Christmas cake to her face after Kenshin tells his friends about Enishi and Tomoe.
- Yura Kawada from Futari Ecchi, before she actually does meet her match in the equally cute and even-then-not-taken Makoto. Her cousin-in-law/neighbor/counselor Kyouko also fits in, until she gets married as well.
- Tesla Magnets in Megaman NT Warrior is not only a Christmas Cake but obsesses over it. Just to give you an idea, she hijacks a robot named Thirty and goes on a rampage. And if she's ever especially angry, expect a backdrop covered in "30" to appear.
- Sumire from Tramps Like Us is viewed by her coworkers with a mixture of awe and hostility for being a 28-year-old working single woman whose high education and intelligence scares away men. She does find a patient boyfriend in her first crush, Hatsumi, but in the end goes the Cake Eater route and hooks up with Takeshi who is 8 years her junior.
- Fran Fine from The Nanny is an occidental example of this trope, especially during the early seasons of the series. C.C. Babock is a more subdued version.
- Some Doctor Who fans consider the vaguely Bridget Jones-esque Donna as an example of this trope.
- Western example: the unbelievably stunning Joan in Mad Men would nevertheless appear to be headed this way, judging by the reaction in a recent episode when an ex-boyfriend distributed a photocopy of her driver's licsense with the birthdate circled; she's 31, which is pretty far along for a single girl in 1962 Perhaps in panic, she found a nice doctor a year or so later and is (as of season 2) engaged. No more waiting for her MUCH older lover to divorce his wife.
- Namiko-sensei from Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl has gone without a boyfriend for thirty-five years. Or so she says all the time. She also tends to fall into holes.
- Marie Mjolnir from Soul Eater. In her introductory scene she's freaking out, because she wanted to have been married and retired by now. Declaring that she wants to marry the toilet. Later things look up for her. She is about to get back together with her old boyfriend, and then he's murdered on the way to their reunion date.
- Muffy from the Harvest Moon series; she's always lamenting her failure with men, and in the Japanese version of Harvest Moon DS, her parents even try to arrange a marriage for her! (In the American version, they just try setting her up on a blind date.) She's also one of the available marraige candidates in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon DS—in DS, she'll also eventually end up marrying Griffin if the player doesn't marry her, though in A Wonderful Life, she and Griffin will merely remain in a state of perpetual UST.
- Taeko Yasuko of Area 88, Ryoko's loyal secretary is an old example. She is very sensitive about her age and exploded when someone hit on her since she thought he was making fun of her.
