Just a little scene I made almost 20 years ago using a small celluloid Donald Duck riding a sleigh and Mickey's pal Pluto. I used the image on homemade Christmas cards I mailed out to fellow collectors. The items date from about 1934-1936.
The plastic trees were used previously in 1/72nd scale wargaming I used to play as a hobby and the snow, well, I raided the pantry for the flour.
Here's another great newspaper ad from 1935 tying in Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus - the two greatest fictional characters of the day.
By the time this particular ad appeared in print, Disney's merchandising rep Herman "Kay" Kamen was well on his way to being crowned the "King of Toyland."
In 1932 Kamen embarked on an ambitious plan to have major department stores theme their toylands around Disney characters and related merchandise. The point-of-sale marketing material, as well as the newspaper and radio ads were phenomenal.
This 1935 ad features Mickey, Minnie, and Santa, and at the bottom of the ad there is a second illustration featuring Mickey, Pluto, Horace, Clarabelle, Goofy (aka Dippy Dawg), and a super-looking long-billed Donald. The crew ride atop a magic carpet, which is the very gimmick Kamen had promoted to retailers that year.
To read more about the "magic carpet" click here to read a post I published back in 2007 about the premium booklet lucky youngsters could score.
As always, click on the image to make it larger.
This ad ran during the run up to Christmas in 1935. By this time, Disney merchandising rep Kay Kamen had been at the helm of Disney's licensing arm for almost three years.
Kamen embarked on a merchandising program that would eventually general millions of dollars in royalty fees and tens-of-millions of dollars in Disney-themed toy sales. This is the first of several great ad examples which I'll be posting over the course of the next few weeks, in addition to some fantastic 1930s Disney Christmas-themed merchandise.
To see some more Christmas newspaper ads, click here, here, here, and here.
Fantastic little promotional item published during the Christmas season of 1935 by the Philadelphia Gas Works Company.
The neat thing about this publication is that it not only features Mickey Mouse on the cover, but also contains a Mickey Mouse Magazine promotion on the inside pages. There can't be too many of these that survived the ravages of time.
Courtesy the collection of Dennis Books.
From the collection of Dennis Books, the Mickey Mouse Holiday Special magazine from 1938-39. This English newsstand publication contained puzzles, games, comic strips and short stories, and was published by William Banks Levy's Willbanks Publications.
Page three features the same "Merry Christmas" illustration printed previously in color on the back cover of Kay Kamen's shoestore premium, which can be seen here.
Fantastic little promotional item published during the Christmas season of 1935 by the Philadelphia Gas Works Company. 
The neat thing about this publication is that it not only features Mickey Mouse on the cover, but also contains a Mickey Mouse Magazine promotion on the inside pages. There can't be too many of these that survived the ravages of time. 
From the collection of Dennis Books, the Mickey Mouse Holiday Special magazine from 1938-39. This English newsstand publication contained puzzles, games, comic strips and short stories, and was published by William Banks Levy's Willbanks Publications. 
Page three features the same "Merry Christmas" illustration printed previously in color on the back cover of Kay Kamen's shoestore premium, which can be seen here.
