Forget the milk and leave Santa a bottle of this snow-white Pepsi to wash down his cookies with instead.

There’s a theory that Santa Claus wears a red-and-white suit because long ago Coca-Cola decided to dress him in their company colors in their holiday advertisements, and the image simply stuck in people’s minds. But here in Japan, Pepsi is looking to carve out a piece of Christmas for itself with the launch of the Japan-exclusive Pepsi Christmas Cola.

While it may look similar to the citrusy Pepsi White Cola from 2015, the Christmas Cola goes in a entirely different direction flavor-wise. In Japan, the final part of any proper Christmas meal is a slice of strawberry shortcake. It’s such an iconic part of the holidays here that it’s referred to as “Christmas cake,” and that’s what serves as the inspiration for Pepsi Christmas Cola, which mixes sweet cream and tangy strawberry flavors.

▼ A typical Christmas cake

Though Japan has taken to Halloween in a big way over the last few years, American-style thanksgiving parties aren’t part of the social calendar, and with no major annual celebrations that take place in November, Pepsi Christmas Cola is set to go on sale November 21. With its festive packaging, the fizzy drink should make for a good champagne substitute for teetotaling party goers over the Christmas and New Year’s period, and at 140 yen (US$1.30) a bottle, it’s also an affordable stocking stuffer for anyone on your “nice” list this year.

Source: Entabe

Top image: Suntory

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Follow Casey on Twitter, where it took him 20 years to figure out why his family always left cookies and wine for Santa.