Most of my Star Wars figure are on display year round. I rarely shuffle them around; where they sit is where they sit. The one exception to this are my Star Wars holiday figurines.

I can’t recall many examples of Star Wars characters being used out of context (save for M&M’s line of Star Wars figures), so it’s a little odd to see Yoda and R2-D2 wearing Santa hats — especially since, as we all know, they don’t even celebrate Christmas. They celebrate Life Day.

The Yoda figure in this picture is based on a 1981 painting by Ralph McQuarrie, which was appeared on a Lucasfilm company Christmas card that same year. “Santa Yoda,” the Kurt Adler Fabriche Holiday figure based on the painting, was released in 2003.

Other figures in the same line included the gift-carrying R2-D2 you see above. There’s also one of Darth Vader making a Death Star out of snow (which I also have), and two I am missing: a wreath-carrying C-3P0, and Boba Fett posing with his greatest gift, Han Solo in carbonite. These figures are long out of print, and bring prices of $50 (or more) on the used market. (The Darth Vader figure frequently brings $100-$150 by itself.)

The festive C-3P0 that appears above is much more common and inexpensive. He’s part of the Funko Christmas bobble head line of figures. There’s also a Yoda and a Darth Vader (which I’m missing). Each of them sells for $10-$15.

For several years, the highlight of my Star Wars holiday decorations was this life-sized Santa Yoda.

I’m holding Mason in that picture, which means I purchased Santa Yoda (and his regularly dressed twin) about fifteen years ago. These weren’t licensed products, but rather fan-made figures. The head, hands, and feet were made out of latex and filled with spray foam for strength, and the structure underneath their clothes was made of wood. Despite the deal on shipping I got for buying two Yodas, they were still quite expensive, and I had hoped they would last longer than they did. By the time we moved to our current home, most of the latex had either peeled or flaked off. With these two, the Force was not strong.

And so while most of my collection sits on the same shelves in the same place year after year, these holiday-themed figures get shuffled toward the front of the shelves around the holidays and shuffled to the back by the first of January, waiting another eleven months for their time in the spotlight.