Since the release of the first Star Wars in 1977, Lucasfilm has designed and distributed holiday cards to its employees and friends. That means 2017 marks 40 years of gift-toting droids, caroling bounty hunters and tiny ewoks waiting for Santa. To commemorate the anniversary, StarWars.com released the previously private cards in a full collection on Thursday.
Among the highlights is the 1994 card, which features a family of creepily adorable Jawas exhanging tech gifts on Tatooine. It looks like the smallest Jawa has some kind of remote control droid that he's pretty into.
The year 1999 was a divisive one for Star Wars, what with the relase of the first prequel, The Phantom Menace. But at Lucasfilm, they went all in on the new movie by putting Jar Jar Binks on its holiday card. The dumbest Gungan in the galaxy pulls a A Christmas Story and gets his long tongue stuck to a frozen pole, leaving him only able to wish fans "Hathy Holilays." (Bah, humbug!)
In 2000, the official Star Wars holiday card depicted a bunch of children with their sleds hooked up to giant podracer enginee. It's a cute image if you don't think too hard about how the kids are about to get their faces torn off by sheer speed.
You'd think with 40 years' worth of cards, Lucasfilm would have represented every inch of the Star Wars galaxy on its cards. But you'd be wrong. The ice planet Hoth seems like a logical place to set a Christmas diorama in the Star Wars universe. Yet apparently wampas don't get gifts—not even replacement arms.
Darth Vader and his family, despite being the center of the films, only show up rarely (and they look sort of sad when they do). Given that alternate universe depictions are so popular in fan art, it's a bummer that Lucasfilm didn't think to release a Christmas card with the Skywalker family gathered around a fire. Imagine an elderly Anakin and Padme, drinking space coffee on Christmas morning and watching while tiny Ben Solo smacks his Uncle Chewie with a toy lightsaber he just got from his parents.
The new Star Wars films have begun exploring stormtroopers in more detail, so it also feels like a missed opportunity to not create a card depicting a secret gift exchange between soldiers. What if Finn got a pair of Christmas socks in his locker one December, and wore them under his uniform boots? This festive stuff practically writes itself.
The cards do mine the animated Star Wars properties, however, and that makes up for the weird live-action omissions. The 2009 card featured a Clone Wars scene, Star Wars Rebels was represented on the 2015 card.
By illustrating characters from all over the canon, Lucasfilm really covered its bases. But this year's card could be the first since Jar Jar's with the possibility of pissing off a bunch of angry "fans." It puts Rey and Kylo Ren on equal footing.
Check out the full collection of cards on the official Star Wars website. If you're a Wookie, don't be disappointed, though. There's not a single Life Day scene in the bunch.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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