I live down the street from LucasFilm, and I’ve even been in the facilities in The Presidio, but I’m not on the LucasFilm Holiday Card List. For the last 30 years, Lucasfilm has created special holiday greeting cards for its employees and business partners.
This year’s card by Lorraine LeBer, photographed above, features three rows of die-cut pop-up Stormtroopers holding candles and songbooks. Click on the image to enlarge. But lets take a look at some of the cards from LucasFilm’s past:
The 1977 Card featured art by John Alvin of R2D2 and C3PO playing music. I’m not sure exactly what this had to do with Christmas, but the art was also used for the 1978 Star Wars Concert poster.
The 1978 Card featured a painting by Ralph McQuarrie of C3PO and R2D2 shopping for Christmas.
The 1979 Card featured C3PO dressed as Santa, and R2-D2 dressed as Rudolph, staning in front of a christmas fire.
The 1980 card is one of my favorites. It featured a painting by Ralph McQuarrie of Santa and his Droids in the North Pole workshop. I guess the elves have the day off. The photo was later used on the LucasFilm issued Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album release.
The 1981 Card featured a painting by Ralph McQuarrie of Yoda wearing a Santa outfit, which was later made into an action figure in Christmas 2003. The cast and crew of Empire Strikes Back received this card.
The 1982 Card featured Yoda as Santa on a Sleigh with a California license plate which reads “YODA”.
The 1983 Card featured an Ewok dressed as Santa, delivering presents to Ewok village.
The 1985 Card featured the Ewoks at a human holiday christmas party.
The 1986 Card featured Ewoks building a snowman.
As interest in the series dropped, LucasFilm stopped making Star Wars themed Christmas Cards in the late 1980’s. Star Wars had a resurgence in the early 90’s and LucasFilm commissioned Ralph McQuarrie to produce a new Star Wars themed card in 1994, this one featuring a group of Jawas opening gifts.
The 1995 Card featured the Cantina Band in a snow globe.
The 1998 Card depicts the Main House at Skywalker Ranch as being made of cookies and candy canes.
The 1999 Card featured Jar Jar with his tongue stuck to a metal pole. Click to enlarge.
The 2000 Card features kids using the power of podracer rocket-moters to go sledding. Click to enlarge.
The 2001 Card featured Chewbacca walking through the snow with children from our world.
The 2002 Card featured Yoda on the cover with kids form all over the universe on the inside, with the subtitle “Exactly alike, no two are…”
The 2003 card featured Yoda looking up at the sky, looking to the horizon at the things to come. A perforated Yoda constellation appears in the sky.
The 2004 Card was rather boring, featuring a snowflake which showed all the arms of the Lucas-owned empire (LucasFilm, LucasArts…etc).
The 2005 Holiday card featured a beautiful painting by Ralph McQuarrie (click to enlarge) of all the LucasFilm characters (Indy, Star Wars, Jurassic Park and more) crossing over the Golden Gate Bridge to their new home in San Francisco’s Presidio. Star Wars fanatics might have spotted the dual Tatooine suns setting behind the Skywalker and Big Rock Ranch properties.
Back in 1979, LucasFilm sent out a similar change of address card which featured the Star Wars characters leaving the Hollywood hills. Click to enlarge.
The 2006 Holiday Card featured a photo of the stained glass dome in the Skywalker Main Home Library.
sources: Flickr, StarWars.com, vendio, SWCA, ebay, Kotaku
December 14th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Cool stuff indeed
December 14th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Really nice…Truly religious!
December 14th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Only the first one was any good. Yawn.
December 14th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Good post. Thanks.
December 14th, 2007 at 8:49 am
The 1979 picture is amazing. I’d love a poster of that.
December 14th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Cool post. It’s interesting that there was a gap in the late 80s. I guess they were focused on Indy at that point.
December 14th, 2007 at 10:09 am
The image of R2 as a reindeer and C3PO as Santa was also turned into an action figure set. It was released for Christmas 2002.
http://www.rebelscum.com/swsagaholidayedition.asp
December 14th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Santa rides a “sleigh,” not a “slay.” “Slay” is what Jason does to his victims.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:46 am
iLike this yoda one the best, http://thunkdifferent.com/2007/12/14/cool-stuff-30-years-of-lucasfilm-christmas-cards/
December 14th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
One of the pop-up Storm Trooper Christmas cards was up for sale on eBay a few months ago. Was selling for a few hundred dollars when I saw it!
December 14th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Star Wars? What the hell is Star Wars? Never heard of it….
December 14th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Are posters available for these or at least higher resolution images.
December 15th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Jurassic Park wasn’t a Lucasfilm movie.
December 15th, 2007 at 8:18 am
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
December 15th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
These are great. Unfortunately, the cards became retarded after the anti-Christmas PC switch in the 2000s. As an atheist and a minority, I want Santa, not a soul-less conference on diversity.
December 15th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Jurassic Park not LucasFilm but ILM effects creation …
December 15th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Does anyone know if the rest of the other years are posted somewhere? Like someone said the gap in the 80’s is probably Indy stuff, and I’d love to see those.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
The 1986 snowman is supposed to be C-3PO.
December 16th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Hey,
I’m oOgerryOo.
Just saying hi - I’m new.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:35 am
More proof Lucas doesn’t have good taste, I’m afraid.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I like them all.Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
January 4th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
The 2005 card, while modeled after Ralph McQuarrie’s moving card art, is not by Ralph McQuarrie.
Ralph created numerous unused designs for Lucasfilm holiday art cards that can be found in our book The Art of Ralph McQuarrie.
January 5th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Why does everyone hate the Ewoks? Return of the Jedi was my favorite film and the ewok Santa was my favorite card.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:55 am
anyone that bashes lucas. go screw yourself. these cards are awesome, as are all lucasarts films. good job george. good job. and i cant believe someone would sell those on ebay. i wouldnt sell my card collection on ebay. i still have all of them.