Use misdirection.
If you want to keep your loved ones guessing about what’s under the tree this year, there’s nothing like a bit of good old-fashioned misdirection. When it comes to smaller gifts, like a fly reel or a hoodie, a large box and ample filling will likely do the trick. To disguise a fly rod, however, you may need to get a bit more creative. You could simply keep it in the box it was shipped in, but where’s the fun in that? Try taping a few extra boxes to the outside for an odd-shaped puzzler to place under the tree. Or, if you’re a household of hunters, slip the rod into a rifle case and make the receiver think you’ve gotten them a toy of a whole other variety. It’s our firm belief that a little mischief can only add to the festivities.
Give the fly rod to them piecemeal.
You’ll want to make sure you pack the pieces with care, but splitting out a new fly rod into several presents can be a fun way to fill in the space under the tree—and perhaps elicit a groan from your loved ones as they realize what you’ve done. If you really want to make them work for it, you can combine this idea with the next, but Montana Casting Co. will not be liable for any exasperated sighs this may result in.
Make a scavenger hunt.
This one requires a bit more effort and a good deal of sneaking about. We’ve tried this before with a new hunting rifle. Because the real gift was hidden away in a secret location, our daughter had no idea she would be getting a rifle. Instead, she unwrapped a large (and largely empty) box to find her first clue.
But how do you create clues? We’d suggest working backwards. Pick where you’ll hide that new fly rod. For the sake of this blog, let’s say you chose that basement storage closet that no one ever goes into. Now, write a clue that will guide the seeker to that closet. It could be as simple as, “Find me in a small room downstairs filled with too many things,” or as dramatic as “You may find me in the dark abyss below, where no man dares to tread!” Now decide where you'll hide this clue. Write another clue leading to that clue's location. Rinse and repeat until you've made your scavenger hunt as long as you want it to be. If a clue could refer to a couple different places in the house—or even to an exterior location—that’s not a bad thing. It just means they’ll have to work that much harder to receive their prize.
You can add extra flavoring to your hunt by hiding smaller gifts with some of your clues or by writing your clues within a certain theme. For our daughter, who happens to enjoy high fantasy, we staged the scavenger hunt as a quest for an epic, magical weapon and themed our hints accordingly. We also required her to use other items to complete her quest, such as “magical armor” in the form of a new t-shirt. (We had this t-shirt special-ordered with her face plastered across the front of it. It made her groan, but we got a good laugh out of it.) Moral of the story? Your clues can be as creative and quirky as you like, but try to make sure your hunter will still be able to follow them.
Take them on a field trip (or take them fly fishing).
If you’re not one for wrapping paper, this can be a fun way to surprise your loved one—assuming neither of you are afraid of getting a little cold. Hide the fly rod in your own case, load up the truck, and head to a nearby river or lake. If you’re like us and are lucky enough to have a fishable river in your backyard, you might be legitimately interested in doing some winter fly fishing. If you don’t want to fish, just shoot for a nice location where your loved one can try a few casts with their new rod.
Either way, for this to work, you’ll need to start by thinking up a believable excuse to get them out of the house. Ask them to go fishing with you or tell them you’d like to drive around and see the holiday decorations. They might know something is up, but (if you play your cards right) they won’t know exactly what that something is until you place a shiny new fly rod in their hands.
If you want to be a little mischievous about it, you can also pull out their new rod and start setting it up like it’s yours. Show them all the cool features—just enough to get them feeling a tad bit jealous before you tell them it’s theirs.
Let them buy the rod they want.
If you want to give a meaningful gift but don’t know exactly what your loved one would like, you can always purchase a gift card in the amount of any of the fly rods on our store. Email them the gift certificate or print it out and hide it in a present under the tree. After Christmas, they can hop on our store and buy the rod they’ve been eyeing. The cherry on top? When you buy a gift card from us this holiday season, we’ll send you a bonus gift card—use it yourself or give your loved one that much more freedom to load up on all the gear they’ll need for the coming season.
Bonus idea: hide smaller gifts in the tree.
While this might not work so well with an entire fly rod, we’ve got plenty of items on our store that are the perfect size for disguising as Christmas ornaments. Imagine the look on your loved one’s face when they start noticing the tree is filled with micro swivels, leaders, tippet, nippers, and zingers! If you give this a try, however, be warned. Christmas trees have been known to eat the occasional ornament, so you may want to make a list of everything you hid to make sure nothing is missed in the post-Christmas clean-up.
Happy holidays, folks! Here's to finding time to enjoy family, friends, and the great outdoors. If you have more gift ideas, be sure to share them in the comments below!
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