SwipeGifts
Shop gifts

Retirement gift boxes for the end of a long working life

Decades of work usually end with a cake in a meeting room and a card that went round the floor in a brown envelope. A box is the part that goes home with them. Everything in these four is built for the thing that actually changes on the Monday after: the morning, which is suddenly theirs.

It is the morning that changes, not the job. I pack every box by hand here in Canada and write one card for all of you.

Four boxes for a retirement, $99 and $119, and the rest of what I pack underneath.

One order and one card if a group is going in together, with the message written out in my hand rather than signed round an office.

The Ultimate Cozy Retreat Box, a retirement gift box packed by hand in Canada
An example of the card, written in your words

Denise. Thirty-one years. The place will not be the same.

From all of us

The Ultimate Cozy Retreat BoxOne size, about four things.$119Buy now: The Ultimate Cozy Retreat Box, $119

Four boxes for a last day

Four boxes about the mornings rather than about the career, from $99 to $119. Three of the four come in two sizes. The larger size of one is that same box with about two more things in it, picked the way the rest of it was picked. Nothing here has a clock, a plaque or a year on it. Somebody who has just finished thirty years does not need an object that says thirty years; they need a reason to sit down at nine on a Tuesday.

Not quite it? Every box on the site is in one place, sorted by price and by who it is for. Browse all of them and pick something else for a last day.

About the last day

The last day is a date and you know it while I do not, so there is no arrival date on this page and there will not be one. Shipping is free anywhere in Canada and takes 1 to 7 days in transit. I can't promise an exact arrival date. You can pick a preferred delivery date at checkout, which tells me when to send it rather than when it will land. If the box is meant to be on the table at a send-off, order the week before rather than the day before.

There is a good argument for sending it a week late on purpose. The last day itself is speeches and hugging and a car full of things from a desk. The Tuesday after, when the house is quiet and nobody has anywhere to be, is when a box gets opened properly and the card gets read twice.

Other boxes that suit a retirement

Each of these is sold here for another reason as well, so nothing on this page renames them.

Showing all 9

If you want to spend more than this

These four stop at what these boxes cost, and a group collection for a long career often has more in it than that. Eight boxes on the site run a ladder of three sizes instead: $119 for the smallest, $189 for the middle one and $299 for the fullest box I pack.

The two below are the largest boxes I pack, $299 each, and for a retirement gift from a whole office they are the honest answer rather than padding one of these out. Neither is a retirement box, so the card carries the occasion. Nothing on this page is a smaller gift for costing less.

Or start from every box I make, sorted by priceThe whole range, $70 to $299, including the sizes between these and those.

The card is the part they keep

The box gets eaten, worn or used up. The card goes in a drawer and stays there. You write the message at checkout and I write it out by hand onto a plain card, and that card is the only thing in the box with words on it.

If you are stuck, people write things like:

"The place will not be the same.""Enjoy the mornings.""You taught half of us this job."

A retirement card is the hardest one on this site to write, because everybody reaches for the same sentence about a new chapter. A few you can send as they are, or change at checkout:

  • From a team"You taught half of us how to do this job properly. The place will not be the same without you."
  • From one colleague"Thank you for every time you covered for me and never mentioned it. Enjoy the mornings."
  • From a manager"Thirty years of work that other people relied on without ever seeing it. Thank you, and go and enjoy yourself."
  • From a son or daughter"You went out of the door early every morning of my childhood so that we had everything. Sleep in."
  • When it was not their choice"However this ended, the work you did was good and people noticed. Take your time deciding what is next."
  • Short"Enjoy the mornings. You have earned every one of them."

The card, the tissue, the tape and the rest of what happens to a box before it leaves.

An example of the card, written in your words

You taught half of us how to do this job. Enjoy the mornings. The place will not be the same.

From all of us

How to choose a retirement gift

Almost every retirement gift is bought by a group, which is why the question is usually not what to send but how to send one thing from twelve people. Start with who is actually organising it, and whether the person is stopping work entirely or only stopping this job.

If the team is going in together

The Ultimate Cozy Retreat Box at $119 is the fullest one I pack for this. One person orders, everybody sends them what they want to put in, and the message you type at checkout goes on a single card in my handwriting. Nobody has to walk an envelope round the floor.

If it is a parent

Two boxes from $99 to $119: the Leisurely Morning Tea Box and the Cozy Retreat Box. A child buying this is not marking a career, they are marking the fact that their mother or father is about to be at home on a weekday for the first time since before they were born. Both of these are about that morning rather than about the job.

If they are not really stopping

Plenty of people retire on paper and consult on Wednesdays. The Gourmet Send-Off Box at $99 or $119 suits that better than anything about resting, because it is about having people round rather than about an empty diary.

If there is real money in the envelope

A whip-round for somebody who has been there thirty years often comes to more than any box on this shelf. The two largest boxes I pack are at the foot of the grid above, and they are personal rather than professional, which suits a leaving gift from a whole office better than another mug does.

The shelves either side of this one

Retirement is the last of the work occasions, and the earlier ones have shelves here too, for the same person at the start of the run rather than the end of it.

If what you really mean is thank you for twenty years of covering for me, the thank you boxes say that more directly than a retirement box does.

If somebody is taking over the role instead, there are new job boxes for the person walking into it.

And if the retirement is a difficult one, health or redundancy rather than a choice, the thinking of you shelf is gentler and says nothing about careers.

You are not expected to send all of them. It is worth knowing the next one is here when it comes around.

Questions people ask me

What is a good retirement gift?

Something for the first slow morning rather than something that commemorates the career. A plaque goes in a drawer; good tea and a mug get used on the first Tuesday. The Leisurely Morning Tea Box at $99 or $119 is the one I would send.

We are all chipping in. How does a group gift work?

One person orders and pays, everybody settles up with them however you like, and you type one message at checkout which I write onto a single card by hand. It goes out as one box with one card, signed however you want it signed. Nothing inside carries a price, so nobody opening it knows what the collection came to.

What do you send if the retirement was not their choice?

Something that says nothing about the job. Health, redundancy and early exits all leave a person opening a box that is supposed to be about a triumph they do not feel, so pick one of the comfort boxes rather than the send-off one, and write a card about them rather than about the work. The thinking of you shelf is gentler again if the whole framing is wrong.

Can I send it straight to them?

Yes. Put their address in at checkout and type your message, and I write it onto the card by hand before the box is closed, so the note from you is the only thing in there with words on it.

Do you ship retirement gifts across Canada?

Yes, anywhere in the country. Shipping is free anywhere in Canada and takes 1 to 7 days in transit. I can't promise an exact arrival date, so if it is meant to be on the table at a send-off, order the week before. You can pick a preferred delivery date at checkout, which tells me when to send it rather than when it will land.

Can I send a box back?

All sales are final. Every box is food, skin care and other things that can't be sold on once they have left here, and each one is packed by hand to order. If you have a question before you buy, write to me at team@swipegifts.com.

Retirement gift boxes, packed by hand in Canada

The standard retirement gift is an object that names the career: a clock, a plaque, a framed photograph of a building. They are given with real affection and they almost all end up in a cupboard, because the person receiving them has just spent thirty years in that building and does not need a model of it. What changes on the Monday after is smaller and more ordinary. Nobody is waiting for them. The morning is theirs.

Each of these four is built around that morning, from $99 to $119. Three of the four come in two sizes. The larger size of one is that same box with about two more things in it, picked the way the rest of it was picked. A retirement gift is often paid for out of a collection, so the order is built for one person paying and everybody signing: one box, one card, and a message typed at checkout that I write out by hand.

Every box is packed by hand here in Canada and ships free anywhere in the country, to an office for a send-off or to a house for the week after. There's no price on anything inside the box. If the collection came to more than these boxes cost, the two largest boxes I pack are linked further up the page, and they are the honest place for it to go.

While you are here

If you are not sure which one to send, write to me at team@swipegifts.com and tell me who it is for. I read every email myself and I answer them.