Enough with the drumming.

We made it! It's the twelfth day of Christmas!

Pace Bob and Doug, the song traditionally mentions twelve drummers drumming as the gift for this day. We know there was the Little Drummer Boy on Christmas Eve, and now we're up another eleven drummers. How do they keep getting in?

Tomorrow is Epiphany, after which even we die-hards will be taking down the lights (although the actual day of Epiphany is celebrated in the American Catholic church on the following Sunday). I have time to squeeze in one more bit on decorations.

Star Wars stuff was very popular this year. I didn't get a picture of the ones I saw with R2D2, C3PO, and Chewie, or the inflatable BB-8, but here are their sales photos:

I did get shots of these:

Now, first off, we know from important sources that the Star Wars worlds, existing a long time ago in a distant galaxy, do not appear to have Christmas. Merely a Wookie holiday called Life Day. So the connection to out holiday is strange and tenuous.

What else do we see here? Yoda is at least trying to show the proper spirit, putting on the Santa outfit, as are the others. Darth Vader shows contempt for Christmas, as he does for all that is right and good. "I shall not celebrate this Christmas. And I shall not wear any stocking caps on my helmet!" So... how is Darth a Christmas decoration, exactly?

One thing it does remind me of, though, as do all the other Star Wars-themed objects -- that movie was absolutely brilliant in having so many nonhuman and masked stars. Lucas, and now Disney, has now made approximately half the money on Earth selling stuff made in the likeness of something other than the humans who actually appear in the movies. Actors own their own faces and can expect royalties.

Enough of that; it's been a great Christmas season, and I hate the way it peters out. But it kind of peters in, too. We didn't all slap up our decorations on the day after Thanksgiving; we're not taking them all down on the same day either.

The cheerful lights are a little sad, now, with the kids back at school and the adults back at work and two months of solid winter still grinning at us. But the days are getting longer already. The Light that doesn't fade will still be with us, too.