Give your holidays a Japanese twist with sushi trees, cakes from this Atlanta restaurant

Your Christmas menu this year could feature a lineup of familiar favorites: ham, turkey, mashed potatoes. Or, it could offer up a twist by way of sushi trees and cakes or osechi boxes from a longtime Atlanta restaurant.

Nakato Japanese Restaurant, which has been part of the local dining scene for nearly 50 years, serves up sushi treats especially for the holidays. Three sizes of sushi cakes see rice filled with avocado and topped with fish including uni, marbled tuna, yellowtail, shrimp and scallops. Sushi trees are made with a choice of rolls including  salmon skin and tuna and cucumber and topped with an edible star.

Also on offer are osechi boxes, three-tiered boxes of 30 dishes that symbolize wishes for health and prosperity for the new year. Tier one dishes include kamo, slow-cooked duck that represents close family ties and ikura, salmon caviar that represents fertility and prosperity; tier two offerings include kuri kinton, candied chestnut and Japanese sweet potato mash that signifies wealth and kuromame, sweetened black beans for good health and hard work; and tier three options include take no ko, slow-cooked bamboo shoots that promotes rapid growth to the family and kikka kabu, slow-cooked radish carved as a flower that symbolizes a”bloom” in life. Only 20 of the traditional Japanese New Year’s gifts are made by Nakato sushi chefs each season.