Imagine if you will that one day Santa is going to retire.  In that imagination what will he look like and where will he make his retirement home?  No one really knows but it is imagined that he would retire in warmer climate and because he is such a toy person he would be doing fun playful things in his retirement.

Here is a carving of an imagined retirement Santa carved in a six inch tall by two inch square block of basswood.  Crammed into such a tight space he is standing in front of a surf board with a pickle ball paddle in one hand while learning on a golf club with his other hand.  He has parked his sun classes on the top of his head while wearing a floral shirt, shorts, flip flops  and with various balls at his feet.  The clues lead us to surmise that he is at a beach in a sunny area with a warm climate and close to a retirement community with a lot of fun activities to fill his lazy sunny days of bliss. It has been said that there is a Santa in each of us and perhaps, just perhaps our imaginary retirement dreams are Santa’s dreams as well.  Take a look at Santa and see if you see a little of yourself in this carving as well.

Here are a few photos of the beginning stages of the carving of retirement Santa to give an idea of what took place because the finished carving was colored in its final details.

The magic of Santa is imagination.  “If it can be imagined it can be,” is the heart of all dreams.