I had an opportunity some time ago to microfiche portions of Sears catalogs from 1909 to 1929 at the big Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh : the Toy and Holiday Trimmings sections.(They didn't begin having a separate Christmas "Wish Book" until 1932.) I was amazed to discover that these things do NOT go back to Victorian times as we had thought. Christmas village houses do not appear in the Sears and Roebuck catalog until 1929! Montgomery Ward - 1928!.

The library didn't have Ward's, but I own an original fall-winter 1928-29. In both cases, these are small, flat-card based 3 1/2" X 1 3/4" sets of 8 - not very fancy or elaborate. The Ward's seem somewhat fancier, showing more complex detail, but it's hard to tell from these engravings. Actual photography does not come to these catalogs until the late '30's. Half the fun was trying to guess what a thing would actually look like when you got it!