Retirement Gift Ideas for Dad

Your dad spent most of his adult life getting up for work, and now the alarm is off for good. The best retirement gifts for dad honor the years he put in and give him something good to do with the time he has earned. Here are 12 ideas, from free to a real splurge. Our top pick is a song about his working life, because most dads never hear out loud what all those early mornings meant to the family.

Hear a real Songbond song

This one was made for another family. Yours would carry his name and your stories.

12 retirement gift ideas for dad

1. A song about his working life ($39.90). You share the job he did, the truck he drove, the lunch he packed and the things he always said at dinner, and Songbond turns it into an original song. It is ready within 24 hours, and he can play it at the party and on every drive after.
2. Good hand tools for the workshop. A set of chisels or a quality cordless drill, with his initials burned into the handles. Expect $100 to $300.
3. A fishing trip with his grown kids. Book a half-day charter or a cabin by a lake and go together. A charter boat usually costs a few hundred dollars for the group, and the stories last for years.
4. A smoker and the first cook together. Buy the smoker, then spend a Saturday learning it with him. Usually $200 to $600.
5. A record player and the albums he wore out at 20. Track down the exact records from his old collection if you can. The player is usually $100 to $250.
6. A family history kit. A genealogy subscription and a notebook for the names he finds. Plenty of retired dads get hooked on this. Around $60 to $150 for a year.
7. A book of letters from his kids. Each child writes one page about something they learned by watching him work. It costs nothing, and he will keep it in the drawer by his bed.
8. The good chair. A real recliner, chosen for how he sits, not how it looks. Expect $400 to $1,200.
9. Tickets to weekday games. He can finally go to the afternoon game. A few seats or a small season plan runs $100 to $600.
10. A beginner metal detector. A quiet outdoor hobby with small surprises in it. Usually $100 to $300.
11. A pocketknife engraved with his last day. Something he will use every week, with the date on the blade. Usually $40 to $120.
12. Breakfast on his first Monday. Take him out at the time he used to clock in. It costs the price of eggs and coffee, and it turns the strangest morning of retirement into a good one.

How to choose for your dad

Think about what he did with his hands at work, and what he talked about doing someday. A dad who retires from a physical job often wants to keep building. A dad who sat at a desk for 30 years often wants to be outside. If you are not sure, give one thing for his days and one thing that says thank you.

• If he is a doer: the tools, the smoker or the metal detector.
• If he is a storyteller: the family history kit, the letters or the song.
• If he just wants to rest: the chair, the records or the weekday games.

A tradition worth starting: the last-day pickup

If you can, be there when he walks out on his last day. Park where he will see you, bring the grandkids if there are any, and drive him home yourself. Some families play his song in the car on the way. He has made that drive thousands of times on his own. Making the last one together is a gift in itself, and it costs nothing but a half day off.

Make his retirement song

Create a retirement song for your dad. Tell us about his work and the family he did it for, and his song is ready within 24 hours. If the party is tomorrow, express delivery gets it to you in about an hour.

Also in the Journal: retirement songs for dad and thank-you songs for dad.