When the winter storm rages and the temperature falls well below freezing point, what is better than to light up the fireplace or some candles, crawl under a large cosy blanket and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and a book, or make some gløgg and watch your favorite movie, while listening to the weather outside. This is what we in Denmark and Norway define as HYGGE, in Norway also as KOS and in Sweden as FIKA. It is the Scandinavian way of surviving the dark and cold winter months, but yet enjoying life so far north. Some will say that the typical hygge elements such as blankets, candle lights, log fire, hot chocolate and so on are just cliche based interpretations of the hygge concept, but they all emerges from the same thing - which is the very foundation for hygge - the need to be warm and safe - both physically and mentally. It is so simple - if you are cold, you don´t have a good time and there is no room for hygge.

The rewarding feeling you get after you have been cold and out in the dark, and you finally get inside and have shelter from the elements, is what hygge is all about. Then all the hygge elements are very welcome and not cliches at all... The blanket keeps you warm, the fireplace keeps you warm, the candle light gives you a feeling of being warm, the hot chocolate, the deep chair or sofa gives you a warm feeling. The long and cold winters in Scandinavia, with only a few hours with daylight each day makes lights necessary to keep us sane. We really have to do something with the dark season. Thats why you see a lot of lights in Scandinavian homes, (even now when the costs of electricity raises through the roof), and from December also a lot of Christmas lights. The small LED lights turn up in almost every garden and apartment terraces. Due to the pandemic, we have also experienced that the Christmas lights emerge even earlier than before. When everything was at its darkest, the Scandinavians found comfort in the lights. Now they are turned on early in November many places. And they last until Easter. We call them winter lights instead.

On the surface, the Danes 'create' Hygge when enjoying their cinamon buns, relaxing on a couch, while the Swedes and the Norwegians experience Hygge best when in an old log cabin made of full timber walls and a large fireplace, located in the snowy mountains of both the countries. But it's possible to get into this mood almost everywhere. People across the world are now discovering Hygge. In these pages we go deeper into the concept of Hygge. Many just see this surface with candlelights, blankets, fireplace and so on, which the AI- images we have created for these pages illustrates. These are great to get the readers attention, but more important is to understand why we use those things. They are means to the real thing - how to incluence your mind to make yourself a slightly more happy person every day - which in our opinion eventually makes life better - even on shitty days ... We here try to give you the main reason for the need of Hygge, an explenation of what Hygge is all about and the foundations and background for the whole hygge concept. We continue on the topic on how to create hygge and some of the main ingredients - hygge food and hygge hobbies. We then hope to bring you in Hygge mood by our videos on our Youtube channel and on other social media like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. We hope you find our pages useful to find your own Hygge.

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