I hate to bring up a possibly sensitive subject, but that sounds less like "absent minded" and more like the onset of a memory disorder of some kind. Stuff like this is how Alzheimer's disease and dementia starts- issues accessing memories or information they should know. You might want to either talk him into getting evaluated or whoever he lives with into getting him evaluated. The earlier they're caught, the more effective treatment is.

I hope that he doesn't have something like that going on and is just a bad gift giver, but felt it needed said.

Even the thought doesn't count here.