Drinking wine with spices is an old tradition that has been around for over a thousand of years, now a common christmas tradition in many parts of Europe. Glögg is the northern European version of it, popular in the Nordic countries + Estonia. And if anyone wants a bit of Christmas feeling, northern European style, here is the recipe I use:
Day 1:
Add the spices to a jar. 5 pieces of cinnamon, broken into smaller pieces, 20 whole cloves, 1 teaspoon of lightly crushed cardamom seeds, a piece of dried ginger (2 cm or so) and a piece of dried bitter orange peel. Pour 100 ml of unflavoured alcohol over the spices. If you want to be authentic, use brännvin, but vodka will do fine. I don't think anyone will be able to tell the difference. Let the spices and alcohol rest at least overnight, but they will be fine for up to 2 weeks if you want to prepare it in advance.
Day 2.
In a saucepan, add one bottle of red wine (750 ml) and the alcohol (without the spices). Turn on the heat and and add 300 ml sugar while stirring to make sure it dissolves. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, heat the glögg to the prefered temperature and serve. Preferably with a couple of almonds and raisins in each mug.
If you want you can use a funnel and pour the glögg back in the wine bottle. Now you have ready made glögg for those times when you just want to pour a mug and put in the microwave.
It is commonly served as a pre-dinner drink, or after dinner drink or just for a christmas fika with some pepparkakor ("gingerbread") and lussekatter (saffron buns). Goes great with blue cheese as well. It can also be used as a cocktail ingredient. A classic is glögg royale, one part cold glögg and two parts sparkling wine. Or as a dessert ingredient. A popular christmas dessert is glögg poached pears. Peel a couple of pears, put in a saucepan with enough glögg to cover them. Let simmer until soft, serve with ice cream or whipped cream.