The Star Wars Holiday Special – A “What Christmas Means To Me” Reflection

I watched it.  I finally watched it.  The much-maligned, infamously lampooned Star Wars Holiday Special – the story George Lucas preferred to forget.  Debuting on 17 November 1978 on CBS, the story is set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.  It’s the very first appearance of Boba Fett!  Of Chewie’s family!  Of the Wookiee homeworld!  Despite these firsts, it was near-universally panned and the special was never rebroadcast nor officially released on home video.  But after writing about the Guardians of the Galaxy and their Holiday Special, it seemed fitting to watch the original (thanks YouTube!) as the latest installment in my holiday series.  See, it’s Christmastime again, so ‘tis the season for me to read and watch a buncha Christmas specials and use them to reflect on what Christmas means to me just like Stevie Wonder does in the very song which inspired this series.  And, just like Stevie Wonder sings about, “All these things and more, darling (all these things and more) / That’s what Christmas means to me, my love,” Christmas means a lot of things to me, too.  It turns out The Star Wars Holiday Special is a surprisingly perfect example of an important one.

Here’s the thing.  It’s weird.  I mean, it’s weird.  It’s cringy-awkward at times, too.  Everything you’ve heard about how ridiculous this is and how Lucas wanted it forever erased from existence is probably true.

Malla cooks while Lumpy plays with his toy ship. / Photo Credit – Lucasfilm’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

We meet Chewbacca’s family right after the special opens with Han Solo and Chewie trying to escape Imperial Star Destroyers on The Millennium Falcon and get to Kashyyyk in time to celebrate Life Day.  We see his wife, Malla (Mickey Morton), their son, Lumpy (Patty Maloney), and Chewie’s father, Itchy (Paul Gale) and there are nine straight minutes of them doing normal household things and talking to each other in Shyriiwook with no subtitles or anything.  It’s nine minutes of Wookiees just chatting and hanging out at home.  We also spend a lot of time watching TV with the characters as they watch TV.  We watch a cooking show with Malla as she prepares their Life Day dinner.  We watch a, uh, well…a V.R. hologram called Mermia (Diahann Carroll) created from Itchy’s fantasies sensually serenade him on a private video via headset.  We watch a cartoon with Lumpy about Luke Skywalker, Artoo-Deetoo, and See-Threepio trying to rescue Han and Chewie with the “help” of Boba Fett (voiced by Gabriel Dell) in his debut as a bounty hunter working for Darth Vader (how Lumpy is watching a cartoon of his dad isn’t explained…do people make cartoons of the Rebellion?!?).  We watch a sci-fied version of Jefferson Starship play “Light the Sky on Fire” with an Imperial officer.  We watch an instructional video with Lumpy as he assembles his Life Day present.  We even see Life on Tatooine, a live broadcast all members of the Imperial Forces are required to watch, designed to reinforce their desire to be upstanding citizens and it’s, “Brought to viewers everywhere in the hopes that our own lives may be uplifted by the comparison and enriched with the gratitude of relief.  This transmission is unrehearsed and unedited.”  There are plenty of holovids of random variety acts – dancers, acrobats, jugglers, and singers – too.

Like a third of The Star Wars Holiday Special’s runtime is us watching TV with the characters.  It’s weird.

Saun Dann sets Itchy up with the V.R. experience of his dreams. / Photo Credit – Lucasfilm’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

Here’s the other thing, I also low key kinda love it??

I went in with the lowest of expectations.  Knowing it would be so ridiculous, I found a lot to love.  From the moment the opening score begins and we’re with Han and Chewie in the cockpit of The Millennium Falcon as they outrun two Star Destroyers, it felt like coming home :).  And no matter how bad whatever followed was, this was a new Star Wars story I’d never seen before from the Original Trilogy era!  It had Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker!  Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia!  Harrison Ford as Han Solo!  Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca!  Anthony Daniels as Threepio!  Kenny Baker wasn’t involved, sadly; Artoo was remote-operated entirely by Mick Garris.  But James Earl Jones was voicing Darth Vader!  No matter how exciting modern Star Wars films or TV shows may be, nothing – nothing – can capture the feelings of seeing my heroes together like this again, for the first time.   

While Malla, Lumpy, and Itchy go about their holiday preparations, Imperial soldiers arrive to do a spot check, searching for Wookiees who may be working with the Rebellion.  The trader and rebel sympathizer Saun Dann (Art Carney) helps run interference between Chewie’s family and the Imperials but you can also see he cares for Malla, Lumpy, and Itchy.  It’s sweet!  Was it a little weird he brought Itchy some sort of adult-content V.R. for Life Day?  Sure, but who am I to judge?  Mermia was a hologram construct from Itchy’s mind not a sentient being forced to do a job she didn’t want to do, so where’s the harm in that?  If that’s what Itchy, an adult Wookiee, is into, go him!  It was also sweet to see how excited Lumpy was with his gift and how appreciative Malla was of hers.  It’s clear they care for Saun Dann, too and it made my heart feel all warm and fuzzy.  Well, extra fuzzy even, as Wookiees are involved.

Han with Malla, Lumpy, and Itchy when he arrives at Chewie’s home. / Photo Credit – Lucasfilm’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

Chewbacca has always been one of my favorite characters so I loved, loved, loved, loved seeing his family’s homelife!  I got a better sense of Kashyyyk life and culture from The Star Wars Holiday Special than I did from Revenge of the Sith.  And I liked seeing them at home, even if I was just listening to them growl and bark as Malla worked in the kitchen, Lumpy played with his toys and watched his videos, and Itchy watched, well, Mermia.  It filled my heart to see Han and Chewie exchange a real hug and I loved seeing Han with Chewie’s family!  My heart hurt and my stomach twisted in apprehension, too, watching some asshole Imperial troopers ransack poor Lumpy’s room and rip the head off his Bantha stuffed animal.  This special moved more in me emotionally than anything I saw in The Last Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker did.  I also loved our return to the Mos Eisley!  The special is worth watching just to see Ackmena (Bea Arthur) run the bar and tend her regulars on an average night on Tatooine.  (Also the idea that the Empire would broadcast a show which is essentially, “Hey!  Look at how violent and dirty and poor these people are!  Isn’t living under our reign great??” is a remarkable bit of commentary on Imperial propaganda in a special as ridiculous as this.)  And I thought it was fun to see the animated adventures of Chewie, Han, Luke, Artoo, Threepio, and Boba Fett on the open sea and in the markets of the Panna moon. 

Boba Fett’s first appearance, rescuing Luke, Artoo, and Threepio after they crash on Panna, only to try and betray them later. / Photo Credit – Lucasfilm’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

Our heroes enjoy a good chuckle after Boba Fett flees. / Photo Credit – Lucasfilm’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

Ackmena deals with some tough customers in her cantina. / Photo Credit – Lucasfilm’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

One of the things people always say they love about the Original Trilogy is how “lived in” the Star Wars universe looks.  Well The Star Wars Holiday Special takes that to the next level as we basically live in the universe, watching TV, tidying up the kitchen, opening presents, and scoffing at Imperial propaganda for an hour and a half.  This is life in the Star Wars galaxy when you’re not on the frontlines of the war between the Rebellion and the Empire!

Yes, The Star Wars Holiday Special is awkward.  It’s painfully cringy at times.  On more than one occasion I found myself thinking, “What the fuck am I watching?”  There were a few moments I questioned why I was even watching this in the first place XD.  But that’s what Christmas is, isn’t it?  During the holidays we gather with our family and it can be an awkward, cringy, uncomfortable affair.  There’s the benign awkwardness of big, sloppy, wet kisses from great aunts or the way the smell of onion so permeates Grandma’s house from her cooking, anyone with a cloth coat buries it under any leather coats on the bed to prevent the smell from seeping into the garment forever.  There are the family members who will always lead with the same conversation topic every year like, “Did you lose weight?” or “Do you have any of that diabetic neuropathy?”  And then there are the more exasperating frustrations, the sort of close-minded negativity you do your best to deflect lest it erode your soul, like the uncle who believes Muslims are evil or the cousin who emphatically states the Sandy Hook school shootings were a lie created by Obama to “steal our guns.”  I’ve had plenty of Christmas moments where I’ve thought, “Eeh, this is brutal.”

I always heard (something I confirmed on Wookieepedia and Wikipedia) George Lucas’ involvement with this special was all but nonexistent (save sketching the story outline and insisting it be set on the Wookiee homeworld).  He was focused on the film sequel so this was largely turned over to CBS and their veteran variety show producers and Lucas hated the final product.  But how often does Christmas end up like this?  Family holiday gatherings (and work holiday parties for that matter) rarely turn out how we envision them.  Sometimes it’s bearable and sometimes we’re counting down the minutes until we can leave.  But we’ve all endured such gatherings.  Such is life.

Awwwww, this is SO sweet!  Han and Chewie share a warm embrace when they say goodbye at Chewie’s home. / Photo Credit – Lucasfilm’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

Yet in all of those awkward, cringy, frustrating, exasperating, soul-eroding, plan-demolishing moments, we often find a little bit of good shining through, a little bit of light, a moment or two which will give rise to warm memories down the line.  We may even find ourselves missing those big, wet, sloppy kisses once they’re gone.  This is The Star Wars Holiday Special to a T.  It’s full of awkward, cringy, weird, and uncomfortable moments but there are some warm, beautiful, fun moments in there, too…if we’re open to finding them.  Awkward, cringy, uncomfortable moments with family during holiday gatherings which may never go quite according to plan – moments which hold a hidden warmth and joy all the same – that’s what Christmas means to me, my love. 

My Christmas wish for you, dear reader, is that all your awkward, cringy moments come with such light.  My wish for this whole season echoes Princess Leia who, holding Chewie (she, Luke, Han, Threepio, and Artoo surprise Chewie by coming to the Life Day Celebration :D), turns to the assembled Wookiees and says, “This holiday is yours.  But we all share the hope that this holiday brings us closer to freedom and to harmony and to peace.  No matter how different we appear, we’re all the same in our struggle against the powers of evil and darkness.  I hope that this day will always be a day of joy in which we can reconfirm our dedication and our courage and more than anything else, our love for one another.”  Amen.

I hope you and yours have a beautiful holiday season, dear reader, filled with joy and love.  Know I count you among my life’s treasured gifts.  There are so many ways to entertain ourselves.  We’ve an endless stream of content to read, view, and play.  In all that, you’ve chosen to come here, whether just this once or again and again.  You’ve chosen to spend your time with what I’ve written and that means the world to me.  I love you.  I appreciate you.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

The gang’s all here! I can guarantee, with absolute certainty, I will be watching and enjoying this (unironically!) as part of my Christmas viewing every year. / Photo Credit – Lucasfilm’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

If you’re in the mood for more pop culture reflections on what Christmas means to me check out:

A Very Doctor Who Christmas “Voyage of the Damned” to find the Tenth Doctor on board a spaceship version of the Titanic seemingly destined to meet the fate of its namesake and read about how Christmas means happily holding layer upon layer of meaning, religious and secular, cultural and personal, accumulated over thousands of years.

A Very Doctor Who Christmas “A Christmas Carol” to see the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams’ version of the Dickens’ classic play out on Sardicktown in the year 4398 – with flying sharks! – and ponder how Christmas means a time to be with those we love and celebrate all the ways we are connected, over the holiday season and always.

A Very Doctor Who Christmas “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” to see my stirring defense of one of Doctor Who’s most derided Christmas specials (I don’t care what anyone says I LOVE IT and I think it’s one of Doctor Who’s BEST CHRISTMAS SPECIALS EVER) where the Twelfth Doctor and Nardole’s adventure is basically Doctor Who + a superhero movie + a Hallmark movie = a reminder that Christmas means improbably happy endings.

A Very Doctor Who Christmas Titan Comics’ The Thirteen Doctor Holiday Special which follows the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham as they travel to the North Pole at the urging of an elf to try and rescue Santa’s workshop from the tyrannical rule of Krampus and illustrates how Christmas means believing.

When She-Hulk Met Santa Claus! in The Sensational She-Hulk #8 tells the tale of the time when She-Hulk met Santa Clause and they teamed up to try and find the evidence needed to convict one of New York City’s most infamous serial killer and ended up underscoring how Christmas means justice.

Harley Quinn and Chaos for Christmas! in Harley Quinn Holiday Special #1 has all the holiday hallmarks we know and love – dozens of pets in need of adoption, a child acting up, breaking and entering, family drama, and an ax hungry for blood being wielded during Christmas dinner – which, naturally, all shows how Christmas means magic.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special drops us in the midst of Peter Quill, Nebula, Rocket, Groot, Astro, Kraglin, Mantis, and Drax rebuilding Knowhere when Mantis and Drax decide they need to find the perfect Christmas gift for Peter which reminds us all Christmas means presents in the best possible way!