Santa Claus: well past retirement age

Shouldn’t he be giving it up by now?

Honestly, if there is any question that is rapidly losing relevance in today’s modern world it is “are you already retired?”

Just to point out, I am not at an official retirement age nor am I employed by a company that will push me out early. Except if you consider it “pushed” when my boss – me – does tend to rigorously kick me out the door each day before 7:00. This because I take great pleasure in my sunrise walk to coffee. As long as I don’t miss it by mulling too long over “which shoes.” So I set-up a 10 minute warning on my iPhone and most days actually make it.

With holiday lights turned on this time of year, one of my sunrise walks this week got me to thinking. How old is Santa Claus anyway? Nobody asks when he will retire! His job seems to re-generate with each passing decade. Once, letters to him were left in children’s shoes outside homes in Germany and Holland. (Or even no letter – he just “knew!”) Then eventually sent by post mail to the North Pole. Now, you can register a gift wish list on several Santa websites. Assume it arrives to Santa by Zapier workflow automation. Can you send him an auto email reminder or text on 23 December, I wonder?

The various AI apps that I consulted – ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini – all estimate Mr. Claus at about 1,750 years old. As the story goes, there was actually a man called St. Nicholas of Maya who was kind to children and tended to give secret gifts for the goodness of it. His legend lives on.

How does he afford to stay in business and to keep distributing all of those gifts? I wondered. I’ll bet no one asks Santa about his “monetization model” – a growing trendy way to refer to making a living. He has thrived through word-of-mouth rather than online platform headlines like “I can help you make $5,000/ week using the Claus method to package your expert content!”

I think what Santa has on us Baby Boomers is that he started his career with purpose and meaning. Let that lead his actions. Of course, life expectancy in 270 AD would have been 25-35 years, and only if fortunate maybe longer to 40. Today, a lot of us don’t really start thinking about our retirement even at 50.

Although I will say, Santa seems a great role model for the expert economy. He knows how to identify a child’s annual behavior quickly and exactly and can find precisely the right words to “straighten it up” for a few moments. At least to be heard. In multiple languages! That takes great depth of knowledge and real experience. Wisdom earned through centuries of practice.

This post, in case you haven’t guessed, finds inspiration in the coming Saturday, 6^th December: Santa Claus Day. Santa will visit the children here to read aloud their “annual behavioral summary” letters, accompanied by bags of oranges and such. Maybe some lumps of coal. Often the bigger gift day because Santa does not usually return on Christmas.

It all brings me to to the question of what a grown up Baby Boomer might learn from Santa’s persistence and seemingly magical qualities.

Well, some things simply don’t need to retire do they? Our sense of purpose, long-cultivated, often hard-won expertise and wisdom, kindness and enthusiasm for the next generations. Contributing from our own values and perspectives. Figuring it out and adapting over the decades.

So let’s see if we can replace the old retirement question based on Santa’s strategy:

Please ask us not when we will retire; ask how we will evolve!