They've only had 1 retirement celebration at my offices the whole time I've been working. The one time was for a guy in his 80's. They didn't do much (a cake and some balloons and a little gathering), but it was something. Generally there were no parties at that place, but one of the admin assistants really liked him so she organized it.
Then a few months later another guy (in his 70's) retired. Nada. He made a comment to me about it later. That was when I realized how sucky we were at that particular place about retirements and life transitions in general (like babies, graduations, etc.)
But two people made their retirements a celebration day in their own way: both times by walking around and ceremoniously giving their "stuff" away to other individuals at work.
The first guy I barely knew because I was just a co-op student at the time, but we did say "hi" when we passed in the hallway frequently and sometimes sat in the same meetings. One day he was working on something and I heard him say "If this doesn't work right tomorrow morning, then that's it, I'm going to retire." The next afternoon he approached me in my lab holding his stapler in both hands and said "Zamboni, you've been really pleasant to work with this year, and I'm hoping you'll appreciate having my stapler since I won't be needing it anymore." So I took the stapler, thanked him for being a nice co-worker, wished him well, and we shook hands. Apparently he did the same thing with various people with his scissors, tape dispenser, cup full of pens, etc. It sounds corny, but we all became possessive of those items. "Hey, hey, don't touch that stapler! It's the one Jim gave me!"
Another time (different place) a woman was retiring. This was pre-MMM, and she seemed too young to retire to me and everyone else. Her last day she also gave away a bunch of her stuff individually and ceremoniously, but this time she brought in stuff like "work clothes" from home as well. For example, she gave me her briefcase, which I had complimented one day when we were on a business trip together. Hilariously, she gave my colleague her work stash of pads and tampons (ceremoniously.) I think she brought in a few things targeting people but then tried to give everybody something.