Social media is both mesmerized and a little bit confused by a viral video of a real-life-reindeer dashing through the snow. The animal was spotted sprinting through a winter wonderland and has brought answers as well as holiday cheer to those in the spirit of the season.

The Annual Downing Street Children's Christmas Party
Peter Macdiarmid
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Reindeer have long been renowned as a symbol of the Christmas season. They willfully fly Santa Claus and his sleigh around the world to bring presents cheer to all.

But, one of Santa's reindeer appears to be on the loose and its quick movement (and it simply existing) has folks on social media enamored.

See the original video posted by @filodxxn Twitter here.

The shock of the animal moving so quickly through the snow caused a stir online.

One hero came through on Twitter with the edit we all needed.

Then a plethora of Twitter users had to ask a question that they may have felt embarrassed about.

Are Reindeer Real?

Yes! The Twitter user above did the hard work for us to point out that reindeer are also known as caribou. Maybe it's all of the Christmas tales that have led some to think that the animals are more like mythical creatures, but of course, reindeers are real!

In case you need to know a little more about real-life reindeer, check out some quick facts from SciShow Kids on YouTube below.

Once it was established that reindeer were in fact real, all of the holiday puns began rolling in on social media.

Some felt bad for the reindeer, assuming it got left behind by the rest of the crew.

My theory is that the reindeer was so excited for the holiday season, he just had to let it rip through the snow for a bit.

So in the true spirit of the season, here's an untraditional version of the Christmas classic.

I would be remiss if I didn't include this version from the late-great 'DMX'. May he rest in peace.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

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