Neighbour’s Christmas “Present”

[Warrior96]

So I really don’t know what to think of this my neighbours are in their 70’s they are perfectly healthy, sound minded and well off. They decided to give me a tin of biscuits for Christmas. The tin of biscuits came in a bag that heavily stunk of damp which at first I thought nothing off it and was grateful for the gift then I took the tape off the biscuits and realised the tape heavily stuck of damp which made me check the date, they went out of date the start of November. Then I realised the top of the tin said May 2023 🤦‍♀️ so they have just given me something they clearly didn’t want and has been sitting in their bungalow for 2 years!

If my neighbours hate me just give me nothing I will be happy I certainly don’t want food poisoning . Just Why?

YRBU - I should be happy with the “Christmas Gift”

Not Being Unreasonable- It was a thoughtless Gift

They probably didn’t realise it was out of date and thought they were giving you a nice gift. It’s the thought that counts.

I might be generalising but the older generation don’t seem as paranoid about food dates they probably never even thought to check

Have to agree with this, my dad often says things like 'do you eat pickles?' and then promptly hands over a jar that's about 3 years out of date. His pantry is full of out of date food!

My guess is they wanted to gift you something because it seems like something polite they should do, found the biscuits in a cupboard, thought oh these will do, didn't bother checking the date and handed them over.

My DPs happily eat stuff years out of date. Assume good intentions, they probably didnt notice the smell or date

I think for some older people too it's still the 'wartime mentality'. My parents grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War and food was never ever thrown away, even if out of date, because it had been rationed for so long. They never lost that mentality.

Taste one biscuit, if it's not mouldy, carry on and eat the rest

If it's rank, throw the biscuits away, clean out the tin and use it for storage

Honestly unless there’s other stuff going on between you, they probably just didn’t realise. My elderly mother wouldn’t think to check the dates on a tin of biscuits. In the past she’s actually given me food poisoning from her inattention to food hygiene, and has stored meat and leftover takeaways so carelessly that I had to chuck them when given to me to cook/ reheat. She doesn’t get today’s preoccupation with food safety and regards it as ‘ fussy’.

They probably didn’t notice the damp smell and is the November date a ‘best before’?If it is, and as it’s biscuits, they would normally be fine in December.

My in-laws were like this. A gift must be given but any gift would do or we've forgotten a gift for someone so will look at the gift 'store' in the spare room & gift that. Their gift 'store' was a pile of stuff that they didn't ever get around to using or was just forgotten so it was always available for gifts to others.
Your neighbours are of the generation that it made you look bad/inhospitable if you didn't give a gift but it was the giving that was important and put the tick in the box. It doesn't matter if the gift is inappropriate/out of date/odd - in their minds it's the act of giving that counts.
My in-laws were the same about Christmas cards too. They sent about 400 every year and started writing them in October but as age caught up with them they'd still be writing cards in January and then STILL post them! Utterly bizarre behaviour but a card was expected and a card must be sent.
Fil made us drive up and down a road on Christmas Day one year looking for a particular house so that he could drop off a card to someone who'd sent Pil's a card and they hadn't given in return. Eventually he said "stop, that's the one" and got out and duly popped the card through the door. Later he confessed that it wasn't the right house at all - DP checked and it wasn't even the right road and it was just the house of a random person!

Exactly this.

Have you not checked the actual biscuits, though? If they only went out of date in November, they are fine, unless they’ve been stored in such a way as to get damp.

They are trying to be kind I would say without hearing any back story.

I’m surprised people think this is okay. I think it’s much ruder to gift something that has been sat around your house and is out of date than it is to gift nothing!

I think it's important to look at intention. Do you think it's more likely they thought "oh we have that lovely box of biscuits, let's drop it next door as a wee token for Christmas", or "ooh, these biscuits are out of date, let's give them to next door as a real fuck you"?

My MIL at 79 wouldn't dream of doing such a thing.

OP, are your neighbours always as scatty/tight fisted?

At 70 I qualify as 'older generation ' but always check dates, so please don't lump us all in together!

I regularly check my parents' pantry - one particularly memorable find was a box of instant mashed potatoes that had gone out of date the year I was born. This week we threw out an opened bag of pumpkin seeds that expired in 2018.y mum's eyesight is also not brilliant so I can imagine them accidentally giving someone an expired biscuit tin with no ill intention whatsoever.

It’s the thought that count.

Well, quite.

The damp smell and the fact they’re more than 18 months out of date … well I wouldn’t eat these.
Do they have form for this ? Either absent minded or mean?

People would have to be over 100 to remember the war.

I'm nearly 70 and I was born ten years after it ended.

Without a backstory I'd say it is neither. They likely saw some cookies, didn't check the date and thought to themselves that it might be nice gift to the neighbour. I got some chocolates from a supplier and I'm gonna regift it at some point.

Since your initial thought was that they hated you and did this on purpose, is there a backstory? If yes, then that might change my answer.

Also I'm slightly worried about their hosue if everything heavily stunk of damp.

My 77-year old mum purposely buys out of date food from a website, & every now & again will give my children packets of Haribos ( for example) out of date by several months.

they are usually fine, but can sometimes taste ‘watered down’, particularly the chocolate.

She sees no issue with it, & doesn’t understand why I do.

i suspect this is all it is with your neighbour.

You’re not going to get food poisoning from a stale biscuit. Just bin them and move on with your life.

It’s not so much a case of remembering the war, as of remembering the mentality of never wasting food - the aftermath of rationing - which many of us born after WW2 will still remember. In fact rationing was still a thing for quite a while after WW2. I was born some years later and was still issued with a ration book.

IMO it’d be no bad thing if the mentality of not wasting food made a bit of a comeback.

People would have to be over 100 to remember the war. I'm nearly 70 and I was born ten years after it ended

My dad is in his 90s. He was born before the war even began. He still remembers it well.
My point was, people born during or after the war were still feeling the effects long after it had finished regarding food rationing and food waste. Families were still careful regarding cooking and using up food and this carried over into the next generation being born, for a good decade or two. Nothing was ever wasted or thrown away no matter how out of date it might be.

The neighbours are 70’s…. Not 124!