Getting Personal

                Gifts For The Next Chapter | Retirement Gifts from GettingPersonal.co.uk
            
                A person's retirement is the beginning of the next chapter in their life, it's an opportunity to do something really amazing and change their lifestyle for the better. When you have retired you can focus on your favourite hobbies and spend more quality time with family without the pressure of work!

It's a time to do things for you instead of for the children you've raised or for anyone else. If you know someone approaching their retirement, it can be a good idea to speak to them about their interests so that you can arrange fun activities together. Everyone is fond of something, whether it's painting with watercolours, doing the gardening or even looking in to history or genealogy. Whatever it is that the people in your life love to do; it's worth spending a little time honing an interest in it so that when they are retired you can spend that extra time together doing the things that they love.

Choosing Gifts

By understanding your friends' hobbies better, you'll be able to choose really great retirement gifts for them pretty easily. If however, you have a friend who is struggling to find a hobby that they really love you might be able to inspire them by purchasing an elegant gift for them. Here are a few examples of inspiring ways for your friend to spend some of his or her time now that he has retired.

1. If your friend has a garden he or she could try their hand at gardening. Seeds are not expensive and with a little tender love and care can flourish even in the most basic garden so to get a friend interested in gardening buy retirement gifts such as gardening hampers, tools and seeds.

2. If your friend enjoys a cup of a tea and a scone you could encourage them to try their hand at making their own. Books on baking and 'I love you' cookie cutters make great retirement gifts for potential pastry cooks.

3. If you have a friend who loves football there are loads of great retirement gifts you could get him or her. For example, a football annual of their favourite club with vintage newspaper articles of their best wins could be a great retirement gift.

4. For ladies who need to relax a day spa certificate or experience day could be perfect retirement gifts and pamper hampers and other luxurious relaxing retirement gifts are also good options. We especially recommend pamper gifts for women who have spent a lot of time on their feet in their job before they retired such as nurses, teachers and police women. After all those years of hard work they deserve a real treat!

5. For gentlemen who love impressive engineering and toy trains, how about a trip aboard a genuine steam train. They can be purchased 'for two' and cost under £30 for the least expensive journeys.

6. Wine connoisseurs might enjoy retirement gifts such as a wine bar kit in a wooden box with a specially engraved lid. Kits typically include space for a bottle of wine, a bottle opener, a wine saver and a pourer which makes it a great gift for someone who likes to attend picnics or dinner parties.

Paying Homage

For some people the job that they do is a strong part of their personality and who they think they are. For example, a doctor will always feel like a doctor even when he stops practicing and treating people and a builder will always feel nostalgic when he sees young men working on a building site. It can be a sad time as well as a happy time when someone retires because they know they'll never go back to the job that they have loved for the past several decades.

If you have a friend who is leaving a job that they loved behind and feels slightly sad about that, see if you can help them try to find ways of incorporating their skills and experience in to their new hobbies and pastimes. For example, a doctor who doesn't want to hang up his stethoscope could offer consultative advice to a sports club or retirement home and still use his medical knowledge to help people although he's retired. Or, a builder could still oversee small projects based around improving facilities such as the local community centre or council run youth clubs. By staying connected to the things that they love and interacting with plenty of young vibrant minds your friends could be happier and healthier than ever.

Related article: Retirement Gifts