The Holiday Season Starts at IKEA

We all have different Christmas traditions, and there are all sorts of different things that can get us in the holiday spirit. Sometimes, it can be seeing the first Christmas tree of the season (the are already starting to go up around Bangkok), or it could be hearing your first Christmas song on the radio.

For me, the holiday season began this year in the unlikeliest of places: the Swedish Restaurant at IKEA.

My wife and I are currently doing some major renovations on a bedroom, and a friend of ours offered to drive us out to Mega Bang Na, a massive shopping mall out in the city's outskirts (one of the biggest in the country), home to Thailand's very first IKEA. After browsing through an overwhelming array of hilariously-named furniture products, we sat down at the Swedish Restaurant - an IKEA staple!

I had actually never been to an IKEA before, so I was very excited to try their world-famous meatballs! I actually ordered their Swedish veggie balls, which came topped with steaming gravy and served with steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, and lingonberry jam.

That's when the first wave of the holiday spirit hit me quite unexpectedly! The meal tasted so much like the amazing Norwegian Christmas lunch I had while visiting my family in Clifton, Texas. It immediately made me feel like it was Christmas.

After Swedish flag-colored desserts, we also enjoyed a bottle of IKEA's seasonal winter beverage, VINTERSAGA Festive Drink. This non-alcoholic malt and hop beverage tastes something like a mulled wine, or maybe like a slightly dry cherry-flavored beer. It's full of festive spices, and was really delicious! 

They did sell mulled wine (technically, "Glögg") in the food shop. I'm sure it would be really good as well. I might have to pick up a bottle of the stuff before Christmas.

After that, I started noticing the warm and cheerful Christmas displays in the model rooms. I know a lot of people get annoyed about how early the Christmas season starts, but somehow, I don't mind it this year. Maybe it's because I'm abroad, and Christmastime has always made me feel a little more at home here in Thailand.

It's been a weird year. In some ways, it's been a hard year. In others, it's been a good one. Either way, it's not been the year that I thought it would be, and as we go into the third year of the global pandemic, I think everyone could use a little extra holiday Cheer.

Usually I resist putting up any decorations or turning on Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but you know what? This year, I'm going to do things differently. This year, I'm going to embrace it.  The thing is, I genuinely don't think I'll get sick of it. I love Christmas, and if I end up having my decorations up and listening to music through January - a full quarter of the year, I might add - then who does it hurt? 

Happy very early holidays to you all!

Or, as they say at IKEA, God Jul!