Of all the 20th century holiday traditions that the Internet seems to have embraced, arguably none are more perfect than the yule log video. Though the yule log video began life on television, its transition to the likes of YouTube and more has been the very definition of graceful. Given the Star Wars fervor that’s currently swept the world, it’s no surprise that there’s now a Darth Vader yule log.

More specifically, there’s now a five-hour yule log video of Darth Vader’s funeral pyre - complete with the crispy, crackling one might normally expect from listening to an actual log burning in a fireplace. The footage is just a looping shot of Vader’s empty armor burning on the forest moon of Endor - with the pyre started by Luke Skywalker - in Return of the Jedi. The armor’s empty due to the fact that Vader’s dead body was still on the second Death Star when it blew up.

As previously mentioned, this kind of yule log video actually traces back to television. The New York City television station WPIX ran video of a yule log burning in a fireplace on Christmas Eve every year in an initial run from 1966 to 1989. The practice was revived in 2001, and has generally spread exponentially since first airing. The idea, of course, is that those without a fireplace can still experience the simulated version of one so that it can produce non-simulated joy.

The one and only criticism of the five-hour Darth Vader yule log? There’s no footage of pre-Vader Anakin Skywalker cooking near the lava on the surface of Mustafar. Perhaps that’s just not as cheery as a funeral pyre.

Source: The Verge