Life Day has come and gone yet again in the online world of Star Wars Galaxies.  Well almost gone that is, the event will be done this Monday (January 12th, 2009).  Official text from the SOE post below:

"Life Day ends on Monday, January 12, 2009, so be sure to get your last minute gift stomping and tree decorating done! The Rebel and Imperial organizers will be leaving the cities, so don't miss your chance to get that gift you've had your eye on. Saun Dann will also depart from the cities, but if you've started your quest to obtain a STAP, the other quest NPCs will remain for a short time so that you can complete your tasks. 

We hope you enjoyed this year's event!"

Of all of the online Holiday events that exist in today's MMO's this one seems to have the most colorful history.  For those of you that do not know what Life Day is I'll toss a bit of Star Wars lore below for you.

Many people who saw the Star Wars movies in the recent decade and even many that saw Star Wars: a new Hope (aka Episode IV) are unaware of the fact that there were two other Star Wars productions (live actor type) made for the franchise.  One was an annoyingly kid friendly made for tv movie called the Ewok Adventure that basically told a tale of a human family that was on Endor and had to team up with the fuzzy Ewoks to accomplish some quest.  I cringed many times watching that one but to be honest, that movie was better than the infamous OTHER production that was made.  The OTHER production was called The Star Wars Holiday Special.

I will preface this summary of that show by saying that this show could probably be submitted in a court of law as evidence that Lucas was downing some heavy drugs back in that day.  While the show does have most of the original actors from the Star Wars movie it also has a handful of other ones that you'd never expect to see on the same set with them (Harvey Koreman of Carol Burnett fame, Jefferson Starship the musical group, Beatrice Arthur of Maude and Golden Girls Fame, Art Carney, and Diane Carol ).

Anyway, story synopsis:  Han needs to get Chewbacca back to his home world before their annual Life Day Celebration.  AKA politically correct non religion specific holiday season :)  Of course the Empire is anti holidays so they get involved.  One thing of entertainment value is that you get to meet Chewbacca's family (dad, son, wife... itchy lumpy, and mala respectively). Good guys show up, empire gets beat down, Wookies rejoice in a fuzzy group hug and celebrate their Life Day holiday while wearing their traditional red full body robes... yeah, Wookies in long red dresses.. sexy I know.  Everyone is happy kumbayah, the end.

This production even has a few intermission type spin offs where it goes from live actors into a cartoon surrounding c3po and r2d2 where they run into a NOT famous Bounty Hunter riding a lizard.. dare I say not famous at that time though.  I do not think that I can find the words to describe how very wrong this show was in so many ways but I'll toss you this glimpse of the madness that was involved in creating this production... the show ends with Carrie Fisher (leia) singing a holiday song for the Wookies and oh yes, she sings yet again somewhere else in there.  DO NOT quit your day job Carrie!

For those of you who absolutely won't take my word for how horrible this experience was, I have found this lovely video online of the Star Wars Holiday Special which Lucas tried his damnedest to keep hidden, for shame I am sure.  Sorry George, long live BETA or was it VHS back then, thanks to those brave recoding crazed viewers out there, we all can still partake of this most embarrassing chapter of the Star Wars Saga, Episode 4.5.  enjoy!

Go view the Star Wars Holiday Special at Google Video

For a bit more about the show, check out the wiki page .