Lucasfilm is now shamelessly owning the Star Wars Holiday Special

For decades, the Star Wars Holiday Special was a misbegotten artifact of a specific era of network TV variety-show thinking, and Lucasfilm seemed content to pretend it never happened. Fans considered it a black mark on George Lucas’ franchise, and made it the butt of endless fandom jokes. But that’s changed over the past decade — Lucasfilm has been quietly honoring the holiday special and bringing elements from it into the canon. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, the best thing Lucasfilm has done in the Star Wars galaxy since Andor, is the latest proof that the company is no longer so embarrassed about the whole thing.

The Star Wars Holiday Special aired on CBS on Nov. 17, 1978. It presented a mix of skits, musical numbers featuring Bea Arthur, Jefferson Starship, and Diahann Carroll, and an animated short that introduced the world to bounty hunter Boba Fett. At nearly two hours in length, and full of cringeworthy moments, the Star Wars Holiday Special was a so-bad-it’s-bad event. Star Wars fans who have seen it often caution those who haven’t to skip it; it’s not worth the time investment. (Others think differently.) Even Star Wars actors Harrison Ford, Anthony Daniels, and Carrie Fisher were known to trash it. 

For a long time, the only way to watch the Star Wars Holiday Special was on bootleg VHS tapes. But thanks to uploads on YouTube and the Internet Archive, it’s easier than ever to subject yourself to it. As it’s become more accessible, Lucasfilm has seemed increasingly willing to incorporate it into the current Star Wars canon.

As Star Wars authority and Lucasfilm Story Group creative executive Pablo Hidalgo wrote in 2023 on StarWars.com, some of the earliest adopters of Star Wars Holiday Special lore were video games. Online games Star Wars Galaxies, Clone Wars Adventures, and Star Wars: The Old Republic incorporated Life Day, the Wookiee celebration of family and togetherness introduced in the holiday special, as in-game events.

Life Day became fully entrenched in modern, post-Disney-acquisition Star Wars canon thanks to The Mandalorian. In the first episode of that Disney Plus series, Din Djarin’s bounty The Fledgling Mythrol announces that he “was hoping to be free for Life Day,” indicating that the Wookiee holiday is a galaxy-wide celebration — not just for folks on Kashyyyk.

The concept of Life Day has since appeared in Marvel’s Star Wars comics and the comedic, non-canon one-off The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special. Star Wars theme parks have also gone all in on Life Day. Since 2022, Disneyland’s and Disney World’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge parks have held Life Day celebrations on Nov. 17 — the anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special — with special food and merchandise offerings. Effectively, Life Day has become a second annual Star Wars-themed holiday, comfortably six months away from May the Fourth.

Life Day isn’t the only aspect of the Star Wars Holiday Special to resurface in recent years. The animated short that marked Boba Fett’s first appearance was officially rereleased by Lucasfilm in 2011 as part of the Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray set — the only time a segment from the holiday special was officially released on home video. The original Boba Fett cartoon was added to Disney Plus under the name “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee” in 2021.

Other elements from the Star Wars Holiday Special have crept into modern canon, including the four-armed alien chef Gormaanda. In the holiday special, Chewbacca’s wife, Mallatobuck, prepares for Life Day celebrations by watching a cooking show starring Gormaanda (played by Harvey Korman). Gormaanda has since made small but canon-level appearances in short-story collections (Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens: Volume I) and multiple official cookbooks.

Most recently, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew paid homage to the Star Wars Holiday Special, confirming that children across the galaxy love watching hologram circus performances. Chewbacca’s son Lumpawaroo (“Lumpy”) becomes entranced by a holo kids’ show in the holiday special, and a re-creation of that program appears in episode 2 of Skeleton Crew. Neel’s brothers Jobo, Jorko, and Tuloo sit around the family room glued to a holo-projection that’s lifted straight out of the holiday special. Then, in episode 4, Jod Na Nawood discovers a hologram puck that features a clip of those same circus performers.

That level of deep Star Wars reverence isn’t unusual for Skeleton Crew, which has also winked and nodded at Lucasfilm’s Captain EO and the 1985 made-for-TV movie Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. But it is nice to know that kids of all alien species across the Star Wars galaxy are consuming that good hologram circus content and looking forward to holding glowing orbs at the next Life Day.