For many fans, Star Wars is as much a part of Christmas as Santa and mince pies. Several movies were released during the festive season, and the holidays were always an excuse for TV channels to show the original trilogy again.
This year, Lucasfilm has baked that tradition into the perfect holiday treat, recreating the climatic Death Star Trench Run sequence from A New Hope with a delicious festive twist. Forget The Great Christmas Bake Off; I want a gingerbread Death Star.
The bite-size animated short is entitled The Gingerbread Death Star Crumbles. As the name suggests, Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm's effects department, recreated the Death Star, Darth Vader and the Rebel Alliance's fleet of X-wings to look like gingerbread cookies.
The artists, including Landis Fields, used Epic Games' real-time platform Unreal Engine 5, the same software used to create the worlds of Star Wars video games (see our guide to the best game development software). The team also scanned real cookies to turn them into 3D models, which were then used as references for digital recreations.
This use of references led the team to add imperfections to the digital models to make them look more realistic. They also handcrafted the lines of icing to make them look handpiped. There are even gum drops for engines on the X-Wings.
The gingerbread Star Wars Christmas animation is part of Star Wars Minis, a new series of shorts that reimagine iconic moments from the movies. The behind-the-scenes video below provides a glimpse at the making of the pieces, which involved the creation of handcrafted miniature models, including using textiles.
A lot of fans are relieved to see the use of real animation using physical models after that terrible AI Star Wars film. Thee festive treat rounds off a year that's seen a revival of interest in animation, from KPop Demon Hunters to Zootopia 2 and a French supermarket's viral Christmas advert. It bodes well for a great year to come for animation in 2026.
Lucasfilm will be posting more Star Wars Minis animations on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel in 2026. In the meantime, for more Christmas viewing, I highly recommend Aaron Blaise's Snow Bear. You might also want to check out these classic Christmas animations.
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