 
Military retirement is a major milestone, and a military retirement shadow box is a perfect way to commemorate the occasion. It's a great way to display the retiree's medals, awards, and other memorabilia, and it can also be a beautiful and unique gift for the holidays.
If you have a loved one who is a member of the military, and they happen to be retiring during the holiday season, there are a lot of military retirement shadow box ideas that you should consider for the holidays. A retiring loved one would relish a military retirement shadow box for the holidays. These make unforgettable gifts that can be the centerpiece of any room at home or at an office.
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa or some other religious holiday, a military retirement shadow box is a great gift for the patriot in your life who has devoted his or her life to military service.
Here are some ideas on what kind of military retirement shadow box you can give them as a holiday gift.
A Large Military Retirement Shadow Box
Let’s face it, if you’ve spent 20 or more years in the military, you are likely going to have some considerable trinkets that you value. A large military retirement shadow box is the perfect way to store and display those items.
If your service member is getting ready to retire from active duty, consider buying a larger shadow box as a military retirement shadow box gift to accommodate the many medals, ribbons, badges, patches, coins and other items they have received over the course of 20 plus years.
As a member of the Guard and reserve, you can also opt for a larger military retirement shadow box for your loved one because like an active-duty member, they will have plenty of uniform and personal mementos that will need a place to be displayed proudly.
A Medium Military Retirement Shadow Box
If you have someone who possibly had their military career cut short, but they are military retirees, the best military retirement shadow box might be a medium shadow box or even a small shadow box since they might not have enough memorabilia from their career to fill something larger.
Beyond preserving your military medals and ribbons, there are a multitude of military shadow box ideas that you can use to not only preserve a loved one’s military memories, but also display them with pride.
Military Retirement Shadow Box with Flags
You can include a flag that has a special meaning to the veteran in your life in this military retirement shadow box. Normally at the time of retirement, the veteran is presented a U.S. flag for his or her service to the nation. But if this doesn’t happen for some reason, you can request a U.S. flag be flown over a special building the day your veteran retires from the ranks. If your service member belongs to a unit that flies, maybe they can take a special flag on an aerial mission or other units can take a flag on deployment and present that to them.
American, state (for National Guard personnel), unit, service and other types of flags are all great items to showcase. Flags can be meaningful symbols to display and they can definitely be included when you are thinking about military retirement shadow box ideas.
Military Retirement Shadow Box with Mementos
While coins, patches, ribbons, medals, badges, rank insignia, and other uniform items are all important inclusions for a military retirement shadow box, it is important to include items that were important to the retiring veteran. This type of shadow box goes beyond the traditional medals and uniform items by including things of sentimental value from the veteran’s your military service.
For example, there might be a P-38 or P-51 can opener placed in the shadow box from their time as a grunt. Maybe they’re particularly attached to an old silver lighter that has their unit crest on it, or maybe they’re very fond of their dog tags, an MRE spoon, an enemy round or shrapnel they pulled from their hooch wall, or some other item that is important to them. Out of all the military shadow box ideas mentioned, this one will likely be the most personal military retirement shadow box you can give as a holiday gift because it will house important items from their time in the ranks.
To sum it up, when you are considering military retirement shadow box ideas, ensure those military shadow box ideas conform to the tastes of the retiring service member. Unlike the military with its regulations and conformity, a military retirement shadow box is a deeply personal thing and you should include whatever the retiree is most proud of.
Don’t forget, military retirement is a major milestone, and a military retirement shadow box is a perfect way to commemorate the occasion and the holidays. It's a great way to display the retiree's medals, awards, and other memorabilia, and it can also be a beautiful and unique gift for the holidays.
We don’t recommend personalizing the military retirement shadow box shadow box with a holiday message. However, the military retirement shadow box can be personalized to include a message like "Happy Retirement!" or include the retiree's name, rank, dates of service and branch of service.
You can always wrap or present the gift with a holiday theme, no different than any other holiday gift, but given it is a military retirement shadow box, the box itself should be about the person’s military service and not the holiday itself.
That said, if you are presenting a military retirement shadow box at Christmas you can include a miniature Christmas wreath, tree decorations that mark the event, and a photo of the retiree in their uniform with their family. You could also add a personalized message somehow such as "Merry Christmas to the best military spouse/parent/grandparent in the world!"
USAMM can help. Just visit our EZ Shadow Box Builder and leave it to us to assemble a gift they will never forget.