How to handle というと in this sentence?

Question

The following is an excerpt from a dialogue with my language partner. For some context, I told her that I went to the restaurant with my girlfriend and her family on christmas eve. She then replied the following:

クリスマスイブの食事の話をおもしろく読みました。日本では、クリスマスイブディナーというと、恋人同士で行くイメージですね。

My attempt at translation:

"I enjoyed reading your story about the christmas-eve-meal. In Japan, there is the impression that..."

So, I think that 恋人同士で行く is an attribute to イメージ which itself is part of the sentences predicative via the copula です(ね). I think 恋人同士で行く means "To go as a couple (literal: To go being a couple). My main issue is that I have little to no idea how to connect that with クリスマスイブディナーというと.
From my more recent questions, I've learned that という can put the two elements on both sides into a "A = B" relationship. Then, whenever と isn't used as a quotative or conditional particle, and when it also doesn't connect two nouns like "ミラーさんと田中さんはもう帰りました。", my last idea would be the functionality of "AとBは違います。" = "A differs from B".
However, if the latter should be the case, then it really gives me a headache how to integrate クリスマスイブディナーという and 恋人同士で行くイメージですね into each other, especially since I also dont really know how to handle the direct succession of と to という.

Answer 1

As Leebo mentioned in the comment section, it's the conditional use of the particle と.

Simply put, the pattern is "If A, then B", or A⟹B if you are more familiar with logical expressions.

Here's a short example:

日本語{にほんご}で話{はな}すと人格{じんかく}が変{か}わる

Whenever I speak Japanese, my personality changes.

Going back to your example "~というと" means "speaking of ~"

日本では、クリスマスイブディナーというと、恋人同士で行くイメージですね。

Speaking of Christmas dinner, Japanese have the image of couples going out for dinner together.