It's common nerd knowledge that the Star Wars Holiday Special premiered in 1978 and was swiftly ignored / forgotten (perhaps an ominous omen of George Lucas's reckless retconning to come — the "Ghost of Star Wars Past," as it were).
But there was another holiday tradition that pre-dated even that made-for-TV mess, one which was not-so-swiftly written out of continuity: Star Wars Holiday Cards. Initially designed and created by Ralph McQuarrie, Lucasfilm's then-resident concept artist, the first batch of cards featured R2-D2 and C-3PO in various holiday grabs and were distributed to employees and investors as a fun little celebration of their success with that little space opera that could. As the Star Wars universe continued and evolved, so did the holiday card tradition, folding new characters into that same old yuletide cheer and eventually opening up to new artists and designers as well.
(side note, I appreciate Lucasfilm's forward-thinking commitment to non-denominational holiday cheer, and I think we should all follow in their example and replace all holiday greetings with "May the Force be with you." "And also with you.")
Design by Ralph McQuarrie
Design by Ralph McQuarrie
Design by Ralph McQuarrie
Design by Ralph McQuarrie
Design by Ralph McQuarrie (although I personally imagine Yoda as more of a Force Elf than a Jedi Santa)
Design by Ralph McQuarrie
Design by Ralph McQuarrie
Design by Ralph McQuarrie & Wicket W. Warick.
Really pushing those Ewok standalone movies, huh? (and yes, I totally own them both on DVD)
"In the meadow, we can build C-3PO / and pretend that he's a God of Gold." Design by David Craig.
Design by Ralph McQuarrie.
Ya know, I've always thought that the Jawas were kind of offensive Jewish stereotypes, and this definitely looks like more of a Hanukkah celebration...
Design by Peter Chan and Daniel Colon, Jr (I'm guessing this was an actual ornament given out along with the 1995 card, rather than a separate card featuring a photograph of a Death Star ornament)
Design by Paul Mica. Worst.Christmas.Ever.
Also, I'm pretty sure this is a porn joke. After all, this is right around the time when Internet was first becoming commonplace...
I wonder how they decided who got which 1999 Holiday card?
*sigh*
Jar-Jar wouldn't be smiling if he knew that that roast was actually a Gungan.
Also...Indiana Jones? I mean, it's still Lucas, I get it, but...whatever.
Ugh. Fine.
Queen Amidala as a Christmas Tree?...Isn't Natalie Portman Jewish?
Design by Kathryn Otoshi
Design by Jim Filippi.
Design by Lorraine LeBer
Now with less diversity messaging.
This is probably the only prequel-related one that I'm okay with — but that's just because I'm imagining it as Boba Fett instead of Jango.
Design by Kathryn Otoshi
Design by ILM's Kelly Hawkins
Design by Erik Tiemens and Ryan Church (But wait, why do Threepio and Artoo get the shaft?!)
Design by Harrison Parker and Kelly Smith
Another angle on the "Ginger Clones" cookie cutters...
Design by Harrison Parker and Kelly Smith
Design by ILM's Devon Cutler
(Perhaps most importantly, there were only 2 years where the cards exclusively focused on the prequels — 1999 and 2000, which makes sense, since The Phantom Menace had just come out. So at least Lucasfilm's holiday corniness didn't give much preference to those cinematic abominations? Because frankly, I don't know if I could handle it if they were given preference over the Holiday Special, since neither a coked-up singing Carrie Fisher nor a script written almost entirely in Wookieese is anywhere near as insufferable as Jar Jar Binks.)
(and for the record: no, I don't know what happened to 1987-1993, whether they didn't send out cards at all, or whether I just couldn't find them online)