A recalcitrant reindeer has gone on the run in an English seaside town, causing a Christmas kerfuffle for local authorities.

The reindeer fled a festive celebration in the coastal town of Formby, Merseyside, a few kilometres north of Liverpool, sparking a huge search operation on Saturday (local time).

The runaway animal was eventually discovered on a beach, where it was located with thermal binoculars, before being returned to its owners in Wales.

A spokesperson for the Southport Offshore Rescue Trust, also known as Southport Lifeboat, said they received a call about 4.45pm seeking help to hunt down the escapee.

Merseyside Police had managed to track down the animal on Formby beach but lost sight of it.

They were worried it might end up in a nearby river, so called in the lifeboat quad team as well as coastguard teams from HM Coastguard Southport and HM Coastguard Crosby to help.

The Southport Lifeboat team managed to locate the animal using thermal binoculars and used quad bikes to shepherd it into sand dunes, where a police drone was used to monitor the animal.

The reindeer was “pretty tired” and eventually sat down in the dunes to rest. About 1.20am on Sunday, a vet managed to sedate it.

The spokesperson for Southport Lifeboat described the night’s events as “bizarre”.

“It’s quite topical for the time of year, isn’t it?”

“Christmas is saved thanks to some great work from multiple agencies,” he said.

HM Coastguard Crosby posted about the rescue on Facebook, saying: “Thankfully Christmas is saved thanks to all agencies involved.”

-AAP