Christmas gifts are supposed to show thought, care, and a little effort.

So one woman was left stunned when her parents’ Christmas present for her deployed husband turned out to be expired Halloween candy.

Was this all a misunderstanding, or deliberately cruel?

Read on to find out what redditors thought.

WIBTA if I regift family a gift they gave my husband?

My (24F) parents gave my (25M) husband a gift for Christmas this year.

My husband is in the military, so he could not be home for Christmas. Therefore, my parents gave his gift to me for him to open when he gets back home (soon).

I was able to FaceTime my husband last night, and he wanted me to open his gift so he could see.

But when she finally saw what was inside, she could hardly believe her eyes.

I opened it up (it was wrapped like a normal gift with a bow), and it was an Amazon box re-taped shut.

I opened the box, and it was about seven little Halloween snack pass-outs.

As if they regifted what was left over from Halloween.

I didn’t even want to pull them out and show my husband because I was in shock.

We are not ungrateful people. I’m happy to receive anything at all.

To make matters even worse…

But the kicker was they were expired.

At this point, I just wish they wouldn’t have given anything at all.

They are not struggling for money. They gifted each other and the rest of my family expensive things.

She feels sad that this was all her husband received and wonders what to do next.

This was just my husband’s gift.

It was also not a gag gift. This is really what they gave him.

WIBTA to regift it back for my dad’s (the one who gave the gift) upcoming birthday and say we couldn’t accept such a thoughtful gift and see what they say?

Some gifts are better left un-given.

What did Reddit think?

If it were this commenter, they would confront the parents directly.

It’s possible this terrible gift is a sign of something deeper.

This commenter tries to think of all the possibilities.

There’s only one way to get to the bottom of this.

At the end of the day, the candy had expired — and so had the holiday spirit.

If you liked that story, check out this one about a delivery driver who gave two weeks notice… so his employer disabled his truck when he was 300 miles from home!