Sorry, boys and girls. No matter how good you’ve been this year, reindeer aren’t coming to deliver your pizza. After brightening everyone’s spirits by announcing a Santa-esque reindeer-delivery program in Japan, Domino’s has abandoned the experiment. The company gives a simple reason: “It is difficult to control the reindeer.”

Domino’s Japan had been looking at reindeer delivery not as a novelty, but as a necessity with particularly harsh winter weather in the forecast. Unlike drones, the average reindeer does, in fact, have a mind of its own, which causes problems.

No, that doesn’t appear to be the most efficient way to deliver a pizza. It’s a bummer. Domino’s knows it’s a bummer. So even though the company won’t send pizza-hauling reindeer out into the world, it is outfitting a fleet of delivery motor scooters as festive woodland creatures.

A nice gesture, but it’s just not the same.

• [H/T: Mashable]

• Forget Drones, Domino's Wants to Deliver Pizza via Reindeer [E]