Fishing Christmas Shirt Bass Fish Decorating Tree Santa Hat Plaid Scarf Fireplace Presents

The bass is standing upright on its tail, one fin stretched toward the upper branches of a lit tree, a Santa hat on its head and a plaid scarf swinging out behind it. It is mid-reach and clearly pleased about it. Wrapping paper has been unrolled across the floor, ribbon scraps are scattered around its feet, and a fire is going in the hearth. The tree is nearly done. Somebody has been decorating this room for a while, and the fish is not about to stop.

Fishing Christmas Shirt With a Bass Trimming the Tree Beside the Fireplace

Our fishing Christmas shirt brings that scene to a tee, with a smiling bass doing the job the rest of the family usually argues over. Two stockings hang from the mantel, a wreath tied with a bow sits above the fireplace, and the window shows a crescent moon over snowy pines. It was made for the angler who talks about the lake all year and still gets handed the strand of lights in December. Anyone who has watched a fishing buddy untangle a line and a string of bulbs in the same afternoon will recognize the cheer on this bass’s face.

A Christmas Morning Mess at the Foot of the Tree

Down at the base of the tree, presents wait with their bows already tied, and candy canes hang from the branches beside round ornaments and a star on top. A roll of wrapping paper printed with tiny trees lies on its side, and a string of beads has slipped off the branches onto the floor. The mess belongs to the same household that owns the fishing stories, which is probably why it feels so familiar. The in-house Podluna illustration is drawn in a vintage, inked style, so even the scattered ribbon looks like a page from an old holiday catalog. It suits the person in the family who is first up on Christmas morning, already sorting paper from bows. Wear it to a tree trimming, or on the long afternoon when the last of the presents finally gets wrapped.

Who else would get a laugh out of a bass trimming the tree?

Bass anglers will get the joke first, along with the people who live with them. Fishing partners and anyone who ends up with the tree-trimming job every year fit just as well, since the bass is the one doing the decorating.

Just past its tail, a half-unrolled sheet of wrapping paper sits waiting, and we suspect the bass plans to get to the presents next.