LONDON -- You know it's Christmas when you're popping down to the local shops for a pint of milk and you see a reindeer come charging the other way.
Nottingham was thrown into a whirlwind of festive chaos on Sunday after a reindeer named Bjorn decided to make an escape from a Tesco Christmas event and go on the run.
What. A. Photo. Rudolph on the run. https://t.co/XyPaof0syY? pic.twitter.com/CaYoHIO6FC— Jon Pritchard (@JPritchard_Post) December 20, 2015
The flighty beast was one of two reindeer being featured in a family event held at Tesco that allowed people to get their photo taken with Santa and his reindeer, according to the Nottingham Post.
As they were taking Bjorn into his pen, though, he got free and managed to make a break for it.
"I was putting some Christmas cards up in the window and just saw it come charging down the street," local resident Gemma Green told the Nottingham Post. "Then I saw a group of people following it.
"It was quite strange. It's like the scene from Arthur Christmas where Santa loses his reindeer. I thought I was seeing things at first.
"My partner was out walking the dog and he had to move out the way because it came charging past him."
Despite disrupting both traffic and pedestrians, the runaway was eventually found and safely returned to his handlers.