Star Wars: A Vader Family Sithmas — Exclusive First Look

Jabba’s Palace looks downright cheerful decked out for a festive holiday party.

The Hutt’s fearsome guards have exchanged weapons for candy canes. The droids he’s received as a gift from Luke Skywalker are appropriately decked out in red ribbon. Even his favorite decoration, Han Solo, has been freed from his carbonite slumber to mingle with his friends.

And this is but one of the alternate-universe scenes unfolding in Jeffrey Brown’s newest illustrated book, Star Wars: A Vader Family Sithmas. The author of Darth Vader & Son and Vader’s Little Princess has reunited Darth Vader and his rebellious young twins for a holiday-themed family album that showcases the gentler side of the Sith Lord and the rest of the inhabitants in a galaxy far, far away. There are Force-enabled snowball fights, gingerbread Death Stars, and tauntauns prepared to help Santa Claus navigate through a Hoth snowstorm. Plus, Jabba the Hutt wearing a Santa cap!

“The holidays and Star Wars have always been tied together for me,” Brown tells StarWars.com. “Every year in my stocking would be a new Star Wars action figure, and growing up in Michigan meant that Hoth was always the planet I most related to. So making a whole book of holiday Star Wars gags seemed like a natural, cozy return to familiar and well-loved family!”

As revealed on This Week! In Star Wars today, StarWars.com has your first look at the charming cover art and a few illustrations from inside the new book in Brown’s New York Times bestselling Vader series.