Animation History Early Mickey Mouse Christmas Card Referencing the Character’s 1928 Design

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Mickey Mouse Christmas card, circa late 1920s, documents the early movement of Mickey Mouse from screen animation into holiday ephemera and popular visual culture, offering evidence of how the character’s first design features circulated almost immediately after his 1928 debut. The card belongs to early animation-related consumer culture, with Mickey and Minnie placed in a theatrical setting that links Christmas greeting-card exchange to film exhibition and cartoon celebrity.

Top-fold Christmas card. U.S.A.: publisher not stated, circa late 1920s. Folded size approximately 4.5 x 5.5 inches; opened size 4.5 x 11 inches; fully unfolded size 8.5 x 11 inches. The front panel has a window cut-out showing Mickey onstage holding a note reading “To You,” with “Showing Today” below the stage, Minnie clapping from a theater box, mistletoe in the corners, and the greeting “Wishes fro a Reel Merry Christmas!” The interior opens to an illustrated projector and film reel showing Mickey writing and mailing a Christmas card, with the message “And Here’s Hoping Your New Year Will Be A Thriller!”

The elongated nose, gloves, yellow shoes, Minnie’s flowered hat, and theatrical film language place the card close to the earliest public Mickey imagery, though differences from official Disney model sheets suggest it may be an unauthorized or non-Disney production rather than an item issued by Walt Disney Studios. Toned, with original folds and faint soiling mark to the Mickey illustration; very good. Visually engaging early Mickey holiday ephemera linking animation, spectatorship, and Christmas print culture.

Item #17377

Price: $425.00