The Force wasn’t with many Disney employees who worked on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge last Christmas, according to a former Disney Imagineer.

Former WDI employee Kirk Hanson recently appeared on the Dreamfinders! podcast, and let slip that Disney gifted pink slips to Imagineers at Christmas.

Ouch! That’s a worse yuletide surprise than a lump of coal or the Star Wars Holiday Special.

“Once this Star Wars thing opened up, that they had a big Christmas party and dinner, and dessert was a pink slip,” said Hanson.

Host Nathan Hartman chimed in “That’s a long legacy of Imagineering, the Christmas Wake, as it were. This happens quite often.”

You can listen to the entire podcast in the player below. This bit of discussion happens around the 31:00 minute mark.

Previously on the Dreamfinders! podcast, Imagineer Daniel Jenkins let it slip that Galaxy’s Edge was originally designed to take place during the Original Star Wars Trilogy, and not the Disney Sequel Trilogy era.

It’s no secret that Disney retains the services of certain employees on a project-by-project basis, so it’s likely that many, if not all, suspected that the termination was coming as Galaxy’s Edge had been completed.

Still, it’s an icy bucket of cold, hard reality to hear it from a Disney employee that this is how the company handles terminations. Given how upset many current cast members are about the furloughs, it shouldn’t really surprise anyone.

“Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it’s out the door you go…”

[Hat Tip: A. Friend]