The anticipation, the preparation, the sleepless night before the big day... a humorous look at the ways hunting season's opening day is just like Christmas.
Opening Day for hunters is an event, one that’s planned, prepared for, and filled with ritual. Perhaps the event differs from Christmas in purpose, but the emotions, time with family and renewing of friendships, and anticipation of the seasons give a lot in common.
Here are twenty ways hunters prepare for the Opening Day celebration the way one prepares for Christmas morning.
The Planning
1. Preparation for Opening Day begins about thirty minutes after last season ended. Ever notice that Christmas ornament shops never close?
2. Scouting for deer begins weeks - if not months - before the season opens, about the same amount of time kids keep an eye out for Santa's reindeer and the lead-time for the first Christmas catalogue.
3. Building and positioning stands takes roughly the same energy as decorating the outside of the house.
4. Game-food plots have to go in well before the season opens to be attracting deer by Opening Day. If you make any of your own gifts, you know what I mean when I say the work starts long before the big event.
5. Pre-season banter just adds to the jovial nature of the season, in both cases.
6. Christmas spirit may come from looking back over the photos of Christmas past. Deer hunters get spirited looking at game-camera photos.
Rejuvenating the Gear
7. In both cases, someone has to get in the attic, closet, or mudroom to find all the gear. For Christmas, there are bulbs to replace; for deer season, shells to replace. Not to mention guns to oil and scopes to align.
8. Presents for yourself are never a bad idea at either occasion. Hunters always need something.
9. New gadgets belong in both occasions. It may be tree lights or a Christmas stocking for a new member of the family, maybe some new 3-D camo for the hunter.
The Night Before. . .
10. We’re all kids the night before. Some dream of Santa, others what they will see when the woods awaken.
11. No one sleeps well.
12. Making a list and checking it twice is a best practice for Santa and hunters. No one wants to leave out a present or forget something critical to the hunt.
13. While making a list and checking it twice, you will repack your gear at least once.
14. In both cases, you may check the weather by the hour. A lot of hunters also wish for snow.
15. The last thing you do is lay out your clothes for the morning as no one wants to be the last one down the stairs.
The Morning Of
16. Almost everyone wakes before the alarm. That is, if they went to sleep at all.
17. While getting ready, everyone else seems to be moving too slowly. There’s one in every family that encourages the rest impatiently.
18. The rituals of both occasions are unique, whether it’s the breakfast menu for Christmas or the all-night diner that caters to hunters.
19. Perhaps where hunters diverge on Opening Day is that most are nestled snugly into their stands before sunrise. They want to be there before the world awakens.
20. The sounds of Christmas may be carols, but music to a hunter’s ear is that twig snapping in the pre-dawn quiet.
Opening Day is a special time for deer hunters; one that makes kids of us all.
