This week's 5 Fandom Friday topic was "5 things on your Christmas wishlist". Now I don't usually see the point of wishlists since 1) they just make me want things I cannot afford and 2) Christmas is not celebrated with presents in the Netherlands (we have Sinterklaas for that) so a wishlist at the end of December doesn't make much sense to me, but I made an exception for this one, because of the upcoming The Force Awakens movie. There's just so much cool Star Wars stuff around, it's insane! So here are some Star Wars things I wouldn't mind finding underneath the Christmas tree (if I had one).
1) Chewbacca overall
I love those Saturday mornings after a week of hard working when I feel I don't need to get out of bed any time soon. I would totally wear this Chewbacca overall and roar at anyone at the door daring to disturb me (link).
2) Stormtrooper kitchen set
I'm a bit of an exception in that I don't like fluff objects. Star Wars action figures are cool and all, but they are just another thing that needs to be dusted off every once in a while. So I absolutely love nerdy functional stuff such as this apron (link), coaster (link) and tea towel (link).
3) BB-8 wall tattoo
I don't even know what a "wall tattoo" is supposed to mean, but I just adore the look of this little droid and wouldn't mind him on my wall in whatever form. Yes, even though it has a bit of orange (link)!
4) Death Star 3D wall light
This Death Star wall light looks really awesome in the dark, especially with the lights from all the little windows shining on an adjacent wall. The only drawback is that it works on batteries (link & video) - I'm usually too lazy to replace them.
5) Female fashion: R2D2 swimsuit and AT-AT dress
I haven't found any Star Wars t-shirts that I'd want yet (few have curves and I'm picky when it comes to designs), but when I get looking for other forms of fashion, oh my... I love this AT-AT dress by Black Milk Clothing and would totally wear it casually (link). There's an AT-AT legging version that I love as well, and also an R2D2 swimsuit (link) and dress (link) of the same brand.
★) Yoda Christmas hat
Okay, this one goes into the category "things I don't want to be found dead with", but it was just too funny not to include it (link)!
This post is part of 5 Fandom Friday, a weekly event organized by the Female Geek Bloggers group on Google+.
Way early, I received a Wookiee bathrobe from Think Geek. It hasn't been cold enough to to wear it yet, but come January, rrooaarr! Action figures are my big weakness. I'm not letting myself even stroll through the toy department.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so awesome! I bought myself a Jedi bathrobe lately (because I needed a new bathrobe and I really couldn't stop myself), but I've been wearing it all the time when I don't need to go out in the house. It may have helped that it's Sweden and the radiator was broken for 2 months, though...
DeleteI've never seem much point in Wishlists either because if I was going to spend money on myself I always knew exactly what I wanted to buy at the time. Nowadays I just use it for Steam/GoG for those games I might be interested in buying if they go for a discount. Since they send an e-mail when that happens it can be pretty handy. Another case would be if it is the type of game I am not in the mood right now but if I really get an urge to play that type of game at a later that I can just check the Wishlist.
ReplyDeleteAnd you know that you will have to explain what Sinterklaas is, right? :) Sure, I could just use Wikipedia for that but I think your explanation might be more interesting!
Speaking of Wikipedia, I checked there to see what a Wall Tattoo is and it seems it is just kinda like a giant sticker for walls made out of vynil. It is also called a Wall Decal.
And I could use the Chewbacca overall for that too... On the other hand my attempts of a glare of death at those moments never seemed to work either. So I guess people would just laugh at me trying to roar threatening while wearing a fluffy overall. >_>
I can say this much: Sinterklaas is the celebration of Saint Nicholas (traditionally on the 5th/6th of December), who later morphed into Santa Claus and was imported back to Europe as the jolly chap in red who brings gifts on Christmas. So for many Europeans he's now celebrated twice in one month, under slightly different names. Funny how these things work, isn't it?
DeleteHave to admit though that this is the first time I've heard of Dutchies not also giving gifts for Christmas...
@Rakuno: I was super curious when I saw you commenting on this blog post, because I had a feeling this stuff wasn't exactly your cup of tea! ;)
DeleteShintar's explanation of Sinterklaas is pretty much perfect. I can expand on it that it's mostly aimed at children, but people usually keep celebrating it with friends and family even when grown-up.
In the Netherlands (I think this part may vary from country to country), children sing Sinterklaas-songs in the evening and put something for Sinterklaas' horse (e.g. carrot) in a shoe in the weeks before the 5th of December. In the mornings, they'll 'magically' find sweets as a thanks from Sinterklaas in their shoe. This will only be the case when they've 'been good', though; parents threaten their children that Sinterklaas will take them back to Spain (where he supposedly comes from each year) in his empty presents satchel if they've been bad! ;)
On the 5th of December, there's a gift night, sometimes with "Sinterklaas" and his helpers visiting the house. It is customary to wrap the presents in creative packages having to do with the receiver (e.g. a part of their personality, hobby or an important event that happened in the past year) and to attach a rhyme explaining the gift and/or packaging.
People without children usually still celebrate Sinterklaas, but then as a sort of "Secret Santa".
@Shintar: Because of Sinterklaas being so popular in the Netherlands, and revolving so much around giving gifts, a lot of people don't do presents at all with Christmas. Christmas is mostly about being with family, cosyness and such and also a bit about Christianity for those that believe. Santa Clauses are generally shunned because people consider them as 'fake Sinterklazen'. However, in more recent years, there's a trend to give gifts with Christmas as well, although not in comparable manners to Sinterklaas.
While the Dutch are usually not very nationalistic, they are very fond of their Sinterklaas celebration, as reflected by my long explanation in this blog post.
*looks around* Huh, why is everyone asleep?
/end of history lesson in Dutch traditions ;)
Ah, thanks Shintar and Ravanel for the explanation! Like I thought your explanations are much more interesting than reading it on Wikipedia. :)
DeleteAs for your curiosity, yes, it is true I am not that big into Star Wars. But I think Wishlist is a general enough topic for anyone to chime in. That, and this is something I forgot to mention before, I am big into fluffy. That stuff you listed are all fluffy to me. Not because I perceive a lack of utility, simply because it is themed thus making it very expensive and very hard to find here.
For instance, just browsing through ThinkGeek makes me drool with the amount of things I'd like to have. Unfortunately it would be just too expensive and impractical for me to buy it (due to all the importing costs in money and time).
Since you shared something about Sinterklaas and Christmas over there, I guess I will share a bit of how it is around here. As you may have guessed it is almost like in everywhere else, except for the lack of snow. We also have a different name for Santa here. We call him "Papai Noel", which can be roughly and terribly translated into "Daddy Noel". It doesn't sound nearly as bad in portuguese. :p
Anyway, don't ask me why he got a name change here, specially since everything else about him is pretty much the same. I am sure there is some perfect explanation about it.
I am not sure if this is a tradition in other places but here children are encouraged to write to Santa asking for gifts and telling how nice they were. Our mail company this year even did something cool where people can "adopt" a letter that some kid wrote for Santa and then buy them their gifts. I think that is aimed mostly at the poorer children too.
Another tradition that may differ is that we have a feast to celebrate Christmas where the family gathers to eat turkey and exchange gifts.
Lastly, the whole sock on the chimney so Santa can put gifts isn't a thing here as far as I know. Chimneys (or any other kind of heating system) are pretty rare here. I mean, it is not like it ever gets cold enough so that we need it. :p
Now that I bored everyone with useless trivia, back to our regular commenting!
These are all awesome - especially love the Death Star light!
ReplyDeleteMe too! If only it were a bit more affordable...
DeleteI collected far too many Star Wars merchandise when I was little and have been mostly sitting out this round, but one thing I've been thinking of collecting are the Funko figures. They're just really cute! (And maybe the ornaments, only because I have the old ones that Hallmark released.)
ReplyDeleteI so want to be found alive with the Yoda hat hahaha, I LOVE it!!!!
ReplyDeleteAbout Sinterklaas / Santa, we always celebrated the two. WITH presents (I am 51 btw, and we did that as kids already). But, I have to admit, with Christmas there were less presents. As adults we don't celebrate Sinterklaas anymore, just Christmas, with just a few presents.
And about Santa being a fake Sinterklaas, haha yessss. Nowadays kids believe in the both I think, but when I was a kid, Sinterklaas was real, and de Kerstman (Santa) was something 'those silly American kids who dindn't know any better' believed in :)
Great list, I'm only missing the real BB8!
ReplyDeleteThat's true, he looks so cute! I usually don't want things that don't have a function in my house (just takes space and needs extra cleaning), but I could totally make an exception for BB8. Maybe slice off the top of his head and make him into a "bijzettafeltje" (okay, maybe that would be evil, haha)!
DeleteI really really tried not to buy it as a Christmas present for myself, but I failed yesterday when I was really tired :'(
DeleteOhh, that's so awesome! I'll need to see a picture! How tall is it?
DeleteA little late but Merry Christmas Rav! Having watched the movie 3 times now, I reallyyyy want a BB-8 Sphero toy!
ReplyDeleteWhoa! 3 times?! I'm also deeply in love with BB-8 and I haven't even seen the Force Awakens once!
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