Star Wars A Merry Sithmas Pop-Up Book, rises to the season

It’s natural to be scared of one thing or another. Let’s be clear, it’s not that I was scared of Star Wars A Merry Sithmas Pop-Up Book; it’s just that I was hesitant to get started on it because I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish the book in a way that’s presentable. Any Star Wars fan knows that once you open the packaging or break the seal its collectible value plummets. That’s where this book is utterly, thankfully different. “Daddy, can we do the pop-up book”, asked the 10 year-old. It’s when he asked that question I knew it was time, for better or worse to get the tape, read the directions and jump into the book.

I did one page and left the book alone for the night. When I came back down after the boys had left for school and I found that two more pages had been completed. In hindsight it’s very possible that I over thought the difficulty of the book and that our eldest son took the bull by the horns. For the record, he glued the parts of the book down in the correct place, folded them in the correct direction and his results were as good, if not better than mine.

A Merry Sithmas Pop-Up Book starts off with a paper Boba Fett. Once the tabs on the bottom of his feet are folded in the correct direction just glue them down. There are color coded areas on the pages that correspond to the exact shape and direction the thin cardboard goes onto. There are two pages that feature the ice planet Hoth and every page has lots of spaces to color, Star Wars greetings or a pun.  ‘Up to snow good’, is what the page featuring a Stormtrooper’s helmet on the body of a snowman.

Much like the really cool stamps you purchase from the post office, Star Wars A Merry Sithmas is something that is meant to be used.

When you’re putting the pop-up book together it is very important not to use too much glue. If you use too much glue then the pages will be stuck together and the Force will most certainly not be with you. We folded each cardboard figure in the direction that it went according to how the pages turned, folded the part that should be glued and affixed it in place. Next, we held it there for a couple of minutes and used a paper towel to clean up any excess glue. When the glue was dry and we could open and close the page without it sticking to one another we glued the other side.

When our book was finished I was very pleasantly surprised. All of the pages opened and closed, just like a normal book-surprise, we didn’t mess that up. Plus, each page had a pop-up Star Wars element and is much stronger than I thought it would be. It’s also much kid-friendlier than I suspected. A nine year-old will be able to make the book and any age will be able to color it or put the supplied stickers in it. Use the Force, celebrate Sithmas or Christmas with this surprisingly fun and easy to do craft book.