Wow. Ted Sears was an animator and the first head of the story department at Walt Disney Studios. According to his IMDb bio, he was very influential in the adoption by the film industry of storyboards. He wrote the lyrics to Peter Pan ["We're following the leader, the leader, the leader."]
And for years, until his death in 1958, he and his wife Vee--and eventually, their daughter Marcia--made insanely elaborate Christmas cards using props, collage, trick photography, and other techniques. Judging by the mention of gas rations and the age of little Marcia, I'm guessing the one above is from 1942.
One of the 300 or so people on the Sears' Christmas list was the grandmother of some friend of some designer friend of some blogger, whose post got referenced on another blog, where I saw it.
Isn't the Internet better than a bunch of attics?
Sears Family Christmas cards and photos photoset on flickr [flickr]
Heh, he said 'quirky':Quirky Christmas Cards Of Yore [howdesign via monoscope]
Those cards are the most inspiring pieces of (un)graphic design I have seen in a long time. "Wow" sums it up really nicely! Thanks for sharing this.