ITV News Midlands Correspondent Stacey Foster went to meet Lars, the baby reindeer, who was raised in a house in Northamptonshire
Traditionally, reindeer spend their days in chilly fields. A select few might even get the chance to wait outside houses on Christmas Eve.
But seven-month-old Lars, a calf, born in a stable in Northamptonshire in May, isn’t the outdoors type.
At three days old, his owner made the difficult decision to remove him from his mother and take him inside the family home because he was not feeding.
His mother did not have a sufficient milk supply, and despite medical intervention, she started to become disinterested in raising her newborn son.
Inside the living room of the warm farmhouse, a Christmas miracle was in the making.
Baby Lars was bottle-fed, by hand, for the eight weeks of his life by his owner.
Angie Nelson, who runs Real Reindeer UK, said: “We’d never successfully done it before, hand rearing.
“The key was the love… and I needed to give him that. There was no point having him out in the stable going out every two hours to see him. He needed to be part of a family.”
Lars lived in a makeshift pen beside the sofa, with Angie stepping in as his surrogate mum.
She bottle-fed the calf every two hours and slept beside him, not letting him leave her sight.
As the young calf continued to grow, Angie scoured the globe for help from other reindeer-keepers across the world for hand-rearing techniques.
Six weeks after Lars was born, still raising him in her front room, Angie got married, and Lars was the star of the show on her wedding day.
Lars now feels completely at home indoors, surrounded by his siblings, three spaniels.
Angie said they were a key part of the process of nurturing Lars, especially Molly, who provided companionship. The dogs would lick his coat and snuggle up to him.
“He still thinks he’s a dog!” Angie told me.
“That’s why we had to take the decision to move him back outside, he needed to be with the herd and learn reindeer behaviour.”
Raised by SpanielsLars has also become accustomed to home comforts; his cereal of choice is Shreddies.
Angie also let us in on a secret about Santa’s reindeer; she said they actually prefer apples to carrots on Christmas Eve!
Angie told us that she believes Lars is the only reindeer to have been successfully hand-reared in the UK.
Despite his confidence, Lars isn’t completely house-trained and evidence of this we witnessed, on the rug in the living room, which had once been his bedroom.
Lars doesn’t have a very shiny nose, but Angie believes that this young reindeer has a bright future.
“I have a feeling he is going to be one of those reindeer that’s going to be leading a sleigh… how can he not?” she said.
Although he still sees the spaniels as siblings, Lars has now returned – somewhat reluctantly – to the outdoors to integrate with the rest of the 40-strong reindeer herd at the farm in Northamptonshire.
Members of the public will have the opportunity to meet him and the rest of his reindeer family this Christmas.
As Lars learns how to graze, socialise and live like a real reindeer should, he is on standby in case he gets that very special call-up.
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