For decades, the Star Wars Holiday Special was a misguided artifact from a specific era of network TV variety 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 in the past decade: Lucasfilm has quietly honored the holiday special and incorporated elements from it into the canon. Star Wars: Skeleton Crewthe best thing Lucasfilm has done in the Star Wars universe since Andoris the latest evidence that the company is no longer so embarrassed about the whole thing.
The Star Wars Holiday Special aired on CBS on November 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 almost two hours long and full of chilling moments, the Star Wars Holiday Special was a so-bad-it’s-bad event. Star Wars fans who have seen it often warn those who shouldn’t skip it; it’s not worth the time investment. (Others think differently.) Even Star Wars actors Harrison Ford, Anthony Daniels and Carrie Fisher were familiar with it trash it.
For a long time this was the only way to watch the film Star Wars Holiday Special was on pirated VHS tapes. But thanks uploads to YouTube and the Internet Archive, it’s easier than ever to subject yourself to it. As it has become more accessible, Lucasfilm has seemed increasingly willing to include it in the current Star Wars canon.
As a Star Wars authority and creative director of Lucasfilm Story Group Pablo Hidalgo wrote in 2023 on StarWars.com, some of the first users of Star Wars Holiday Special lore was video games. Online games Star Wars galaxies, Clone Wars AdventuresAnd Star Wars: The Old Republic included Day of lifethe Wookiee celebration of family and togetherness introduced in the holiday special, as in-game events.
Thanks to Life Day, it became fully entrenched in the modern post-Disney acquisition Star Wars canon The Mandalorian. In the first episode of that Disney Plus series, Din Djarin’s bounty The young Mythrol announces that he was “hoping to be free for Life Day,” indicating that the Wookiee holiday is a galaxy-wide celebration – and not just for people on Kashyyyk.
The concept of Life Day has since appeared in Marvel’s Star Wars comics and the comic non-canon one-shots The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special. The Star Wars theme parks also went all-in on Life Day. Since 2022, Disneyland and Disney World’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge parks have celebrated Life Day on November 17 – the anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special – with special foods and merchandise offering. In fact, Life Day has become a second annual Star Wars-themed holiday, comfortably six months removed from the Fourth of May.
Life day is not the only aspect of the Star Wars Holiday Special have reappeared in recent years. The animated short that marked Boba Fett’s first appearance was officially re-released 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 Loyal Wookiee” in 2021.
Other elements from the Star Wars Holiday Special have crept into the modern canon, including the four-armed alien chef Gormaanda. In the Christmas special, Chewbacca’s wife, Mallatobuck, prepares for the Day of Life celebration by watching a cooking show starring Gormaanda (played by Harvey Korman). Gormaanda has since made minor canon-level appearances in short story collections (Tales from a galaxy far, far away: Aliens: Part I) and several official cookbooks.
Most recently, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew paid tribute to the Star Wars Holiday Specialconfirming that children across the galaxy enjoy watching hologram circus performances. Chewbacca’s son Lumpawaroo (“lumpy”) becomes entranced by a holo-children’s 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 in the family room glued to a holoprojection straight out of the holiday special. Then in episode 4, Jod Na Nawood discovers a hologram puck containing a fragment of the same circus performers.
That level of deep Star Wars veneration is not unusual for Skeleton crewwho has also winked and nodded to Lucasfilm Captain EO and the 1985 made-for-TV movie Ewoks: The Battle of Endor. But it’s nice to know that kids from all alien species in the Star Wars galaxy are consuming that good hologram circus content and looking forward to holding glowing orbs on the next day of life.