Neighbours complaining about reindeer food

[wasteful26]

Elder dc bought a bag of porridge on Xmas Eve to mix with glitter with their younger siblings and put out for the “reindeer”
As dc do on Xmas Eve they got carried away and as well as putting the food in our front garden they sprinkled it on the public road.
A neighbour who we do not know by name but to smile at had posted on the local FB page complaining about the mess which went over our heads but he then confronted dh in the street today when he was getting in his car.
Because of the old dry weather the porridge is still laying in the street.
Dh being his usual non diplomatic self wasn’t exactly friendly towards neighbour.
Ive no intentions of going out with a brush and shovel for what is a few handfuls of oats and it’s to rain in the next few days anyway but am wondering if this is something that others would be upset about in their street?

Well obviously you’re happy to live in a rat infested dump, but your neighbours are not, and I don’t blame them. Clean it up before the rats arrive to do it for you.

1. Who even uses glitter these days -it is widely known to be detrimental to wildlife and a 'forever' environmental pollutants.

1. The mess on the pavement -a slip hazard once wet (glutenous mess) or trip hazard if frozen (irregular surface), not great for members of the public with visual impairment or users of walking aids.

1. The attitude: "I'm not going to..." Wtf? By all means, do what you wish inside the perimeter of your own property, but why be so arrogant about a mess you made in a shared space, the public highway of all places. Weirdly entitled.

And doesn't it make you cringe that your husband was rude to a neighbour -with whom you're normally on smiling terms- who raises a legitimate concern? I definitely would think less of my spouse and be very embarrassed.

Ridiculous thing to do.
Do reindeer even eat porridge and glitter?
Why not just leave them an unglittered carrot?

Your kids should clean it up.
you should be firm that you do not put plastic out where wildlife lives or where it is technically littering.
The wildlife thing is the bigger issue imo… that’s poor they don’t feel they should clean it up and neither do you..

Could be a good lesson to send your DC out there to clean up their mess!

Could the glitter be harmful to wildlife attracted to the oats? It all sounds irresponsible and a bit pointless.

Well, they say you can’t polish a turd.

Perhaps the Reindeer like to cover theirs in glitter.

I've never heard of this "reindeer food" malarkey before. Santa has been, go out and clean it up.

I only heard about this fad for the first time this year when our daughter got given some edible magic reindeer food (cake sprinkles with oats and raisins, no glitter or plastic). She’s still a baby so we didn’t leave it out, but I’ve been thinking about next year.

Spreading it in the garden seems like it will attract vermin and look messy, plus even edible sugar sprinkles may not be good for wildlife, so we were planning to leave it in a bowl with a carrot on the garden table.

Are there any other fun ways people have found to feed Santa’s reindeer without harming the environment?

OP, please clean up after yourselves x

I wonder if you can just leave out a couple of carrots in future?

@drhf
Raisins are poisonous to some animals, including dogs, so people doing this - even without glitter - could be causing harm to their neighbours pets. Why is this sort of thing being promoted? Leaving out a carrot or an apple, fine. But the rest is just harmful littering.

Why were your children out on a public road unsupervised chucking porridge and glitter around? I don’t think a couple of handfuls would notice, it’s obviously more than that. Are your kids wondering why it’s not been eaten? I would’ve swept it all up to keep the magic ✨

What a messy waste…. Wait til it rains.

I'm guessing it exactly did! Pure froth generator.

So your kids made a mess on the street encouraged by you (reindeer food 🙄) and then when a neighbour complains you cba to sweep it up. As for the glitter that shouldn't be going anywhere.

Glitter kills wildlife and birds so why are you using it ?
You could have put some dried fruit in instead to make it safe.Porridge isn’t the issue so much as it’s contamination with glitter.
The plastic glitter will also end up in our waterways adding microplastics to our drinking water.
I’m not sure I’d complain if I was your neighbour but I’d judge you and dh as being a bit thick.

Was it edible glitter?

But dried fruit is toxic to dogs so you'd then run the risk of harming your neighbours pets.

YABU for chucking glitter (plastic) around.

Not good for wildlife who may try and eat the oats.

I would be out there pouring a kettle full of water over the oats to try and move it along. It must look a mess.

Just go and clean it up.

You could have cleaned it up in the time it takes to post on MN.

That would take effort though.

As dc do on Xmas Eve they got carried away and as well as putting the food in our front garden they sprinkled it on the public road.

Which is it? They got carried away or just in garden!?

With the neighbour on this one. Oats and glitter not great. OP you seem to have asked the Q with the answer you wanted in mind i.e. he’s being unreasonable… yet even in your original post you acknowledge the kids got carried away.

No reasonable reason why you wouldn’t just clean up the worst of it.

Are there any genuine posts on here anymore?
Everything I read is made up bollocks.

How crazy.
If you must, keep it to your property.

Glitter won't. That will probably be there this time next year, seriously.

I hope it was edible glitter and that you didn’t intend on poisoning Dasher and Dancer? Didn’t DC get upset the reindeer didn’t eat it too?

We did reindeer food one year in our driveway, only because DC had made it at a Christmas event and wanted to use it. To keep up with the whole tale, DH went and swept it up in the evening. We didn’t do it again, it was just another annoying task.

You should have cleaned it up.

If you mean genuine threads, then I agree. It seems to be silly season.