Star Wars is always one of my favorite subjects pertaining to Christmas. The Christmas of 1980 was full of Empire Strikes Back toys from Santa. Every Christmas from 1992-1998 involved watching the original trilogy with my little sister. And then there's the Christmas season of 1996.
Okay, this story actually takes place during the Summer of 1996. Hallmark announced that they would be producing their very first Star Wars ornament. A replica of the Millennium Falcon, the ornament was part of Hallmark's Magic line. If you removed a bulb from a certain type of bulb from a strand of lights and plugged the Falcon in, it would light up the cockpit and engine.
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Anyways, on the day that the 1996 Christmas line of Hallmark ornaments was to debut, I was standing in line with probably 100 soccer moms and grandmothers. As an 18-year old and the only male in the group, I sure did get a whole bunch of odd looks. Nevertheless, I waited about an hour for the store to open and then when the doors opened, I rushed to the display of Star Wars ornaments and grabbed one from the stack. I was first in line at the check out as that was all I wanted from the store and everybody else was fighting over the more popular holiday offerings.
A year later, I'm back at the same store. Based on the popularity of the Millennium Falcon ornament, Hallmark decided to create an official line of Star Wars ornaments. Luke Skywalker was the first official ornament. Yoda and a Magic version of Darth Vader were also released for the 1997 season.
As I said, I was back at the same Hallmark story waiting for it to open so I can get my hands on the new releases. Only I'm not alone this year. With me was Alan, the store manager at the Suncoast video store I worked at in the mall. We decided to split up and whomever got to the items first would grab one of each. We had to game plan as this year there were several other known Star Wars collectors in line hoping to get their hands on our ornaments.
The last Star Wars ornament I purchased was in 98. It was of Princess Leia in her white gown from A New Hope. I got this one in the same way from the same store. But now that I was engaged, I needed to start saving money and went with the Princess from Alderaan.
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Over 25 years have passed and there are literally thousands of Star Wars ornaments now. With Disney as the new owners of the Force, it's not just Hallmark who produces licensed tree decorations these days. Of those, my favorites are part of the M&M Mpire line of baubles in which the tiny candies are dressed as characters from the films. I also like the Downtown Disney set of ornaments that look like gingerbread cookies.
As for the hand-crafted stuff, I'm going to highlight this painted wooden ornament DIY that I found on JustJENN.recipes. Utilizing a set of temporary tattoos, this stormtrooper tree hanger looks like it's been given the sugar skull treatment. I love sugar skulls!
I could talk about Star Wars ornaments for weeks. But if I do that, I won't have time for my Advent present for today. I'm trying really hard to find something I've haven't gifted you guys yet. So here's a really cool video I discovered over the summer. It's a mash-up of the holiday classic Carol of the Bells and John Williams' Duel of the Fates from Attack of the Clones.
Be sure to turn the sound up real loud on this one.
Enjoy!
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