That quiet is easy to read as not minding. It usually means something closer to the opposite, and it's why the present that works here states the facts plainly and then stops talking. Nothing sentimental, and nothing that asks him to react to it in front of the family.
The facts he will not volunteer
The trade, the employer, the number of years. Most dads will give you all three in one sentence if you ask them directly, and most will never bring them up unprompted. Written down and framed, those facts are a statement rather than a conversation, which is the register this generally needs to be in.
Set in type, framed, done
The name print takes his name, his profession, his years of service and where he worked, and puts them into editorial type under the fixed Happy Retirement line. No photograph to dig out, no message to compose, nothing that requires him to perform gratitude when he opens it.
Without a frame, A4 comes to £14.99 and A3 to £28.99. Ready for a wall, with the frame on, A3 becomes £69.00. The framed version earns the difference here, because it can go up the day it arrives instead of waiting for a trip to a framing shop he hasn't agreed to make.
Between siblings
If several of you are buying together, one person orders and the rest pay them back. Delivery is inside the price, so there is nothing else to divide up afterwards.
Timing
A fortnight before the last day is comfortable. Made when you order it: two to four working days at the press and two to five in the post, with nothing charged for the delivery.
If there are grandchildren in the picture, the guide to buying for a grandad reaches a different recommendation, and retirement gifts for men is the broader version of this page. Both sit under who is retiring.
Related pages: retirement gifts for women · for men · for grandad · what to write in the card · personalised retirement gifts
