Holidays were colliding long before Tim Burton.  Here's a nightmare before Christmas from a century ago, in Youth's Companion, 1925.

The movies were no better in 1916, if it's any consolation.  Here are 4 Hollywood magnates: O. U. Drivel, D. Bigg-Noyes, A. Buncha Junk, and Tommy Rott.  From Life magazine, 1916.

A precursor to the DC Comics atomic physicist character Doctor Manhattan.  (Thanks to Zestyblog and Phranklynfaerun.)  

Here's a precursor to a photo from St. Procopius College's 1964 yearbook.  Depending upon how you rotate the illustration from 60 years earlier, he's an acrobat, taking a nap, feeling bored, or a plague victim.  From Lustige Blätter, 1904.

Before Why Paint Cats? there was Why Paint Turtles?  From Reaching Our Goals by Horn, Goodykoontz & Snedaker and illustrated by Cleveland Woodward, 1940.

Before television screens offered "picture in picture," there was "postcard in postcard."  Via UpNorthMemories.

You knew the elongated cat meme wasn't new, right?  From the Fort Wayne Sentinel, 1911.

Before Why Paint Cats?, there was the painting of roosters.  From the Fort Wayne Sentinel, 1914.

Here's a precursor to wearing a designer label (or company logo) on the outside.  From Flora Macdonald College's 1928 yearbook. 

Here's a precursor to premarket distressed clothing.  From Life, 1927.  [Via Jonathan Caws-Elwitt]

Here's a precursor to Twin Peaks' Dr. Jacoby.  From Watts Hospital School of Nursing's 1980 yearbook.

Here's a precursor to The Flying Nun, from Fate in Arcadia, written and illustrated by Edwin John Ellis, 1892.

We spotted Princess Leia from The Empire Strikes Back, back in 1922.  From The Children's Newspaper, 1922.

Before The Stuff, there was the Brothers Grimm's "The Porridge."  From Elson-Gray Basic Readers, Book One, 1937.

QR codes may have been invented in 1994, but they have decorated clothing long before.  From Applied Drawing by Harold Haven Brown, 1928.

Here's a precursor to David Lynch's brilliant series On the Air, in which a character can't remember her mother's first name, which turns out to be Mary.  In the Duluth Herald of 1912, a man forgets his mother's first name, which turns out to be Mary.  His excuse was that he hadn't seen her in several years.

Before The Exorcist, there was the possession of Esther Cox.  From Fate Magazine, 1952.

Here's a precursor to silent / headphone parties.  From Punch, 1923.

A century before the annoying airbnb signs saying "Relax" and the like, there were those annoying signs.  From Punch, 1923.