Hygge rage!

[ilovethewinter]

Thought this was the best place to write this as am with like minded people.Is anybody else fed up with people's interpretation of Hygge.I had been reading about the Danish lifestyle and how their levels of happiness and contentment were high compared to ours,and decided to look into how to achieve this.However people I have spoken to just seem to see it as another consumer spending Opportunity! I know creating the right relaxing atmosphere is important,but just spending loads on fluffy socks,candles and throws is to me defeating the object.They seem to think it's just another reason to get stressed about looking the perfect part and image.Whereas really this couldn't be further from the truth as it's about feelings of wellbeing and simplicity. What are you,re thoughts?

My neighbour is Danish. Her husband voted Leave in the referendum. How does that work, then?

There is Euroscepticism in other countries too! People who are concerned about the democratic deficit or various aspects of policy. I really hope this doesn't derail the thread, but it was a referendum on membership of the EU, not on immigration, although not everyone read it that way.

Lndnmummy, the Brits you know sound lazy about entertaining compared with the Swedes. The sorts of effort you describe would seem quite normal for my parents and grandparents' generations. (And more effort is to be made for others not oneself? Or am I misreading about always eating leftovers or pasta and ketchup when alone?)

Lndnmummy
it is about prioritising enjoying and spending time together/or on your own and to treasure that time and making the most of it. It has an element of mindfulness to it I guess.

What a lovely concept.

Penny, i didnt mean brits were lazy. I might have explained myself clumsily.
What I meant was that the process of making things mysigt/hygge whatever is a process/mindset that scandis kind of cherish and (rightly or wrongly) put alot of emphasis on.

I am so interested in the concept. I think it may be missing here a bit altogether, and that it may not just be a matter of a missing word.

A beautiful, old-fashioned English tea might have been like this if it had been with family, and it would have taken someone's care to prepare it, but it also could have had an element of formality and possibly duty about it - so not always the same thing.

Old fashioned, family Sunday lunch might have had some elements once, but often the mother was too frazzled and the next day Monday was looming for work and school so it could feel like a depressing count-down, so I don't think that quite got it.

Grabbing and scoffing at a big bowl of greasy roast potatoes with a lot of people crammed on a sofa while watching the television - as in a repulsive (imo) UK advertisement - is more about a nothing-matters-at-all, no mindlfulness whatsoever, cram-it-all-in, binge culture. So that's obviously not it, even if doing that with family and friends would be cosy and comforting and physically filling.

What people hope for out if Christmas here, and sometimes find with family and friends, and all the beauty, warmth and sparkling lights might sometimes be the same perhaps.

What do you Scandinavians find the most Hygge in the UK culture?
(I understand that individual instances could be anywhare, and that within your lives you would create it wherever you go.)

Lndnmummy, Oh, I wasn't meaning you were being judgemental, don't worry, rather that it is the sort of thing my parents would have considered lazy in younger people. And which would disappoint me a bit now TBH as I am a bit older and don't want everything to be slobby like a student house.

The enjoyment of the preparation is interesting. I enjoy making stuff like that, although there are limits. That is something I found myself as an adult or maybe from the TV and cookery books. When I was a kid these were activities that as KindDog says, had a lot of duty around them, they were chores. Cooking for fun would have been a weird idea to me when I was 15 - but that's a cultural change in Britain generally. And, as came up in some other thread on hygge, the fact our houses are draughtier makes a difference, it's hard to feel cosier then.

When I first discovered the concept when visiting Denmark one thing that struck me was how everyone puts lights and candles in their windows. It seemed (I may be wrong) as if part of the idea was to share the hygge with the outside world. I thought that was a really nice idea and came home thinking we could do more of that. The U.K. concept of cosines is very much about shutting the outside world out (not that I can talk, being a massive introvert).

Vanilla probably the same way that my British friend in Denmark voted LEave!

Am slightly bemused by this post- especially since I was looking at a hygge book online the other day. The only thing that struck me was that they have a word for this type of living- which isn't a new concept really is it?! (Or at least, shouldn't be imo). Certainly didn't inspire any trip to Ikea, even more so since the wardrobes I was going to purchase from there have gone up £10 each over the course of a few months. I mean, seriously?!!!! (Little things like that irritate me)

When I was a schoolchild (I grew up abroad) I was told that Brits have this wonderful meal of sliver-thin cucumber sandwiches and scones and other elaborate baked goods that is called five o'clock tea. No words in our language for scones and clotted cream but it did sound magical and we could not pronounce 'scone'. And during five o'clock tea everyone is witty and polite and ironic and understated and peace and harmony reigns.

I must be living under a rock as have never heard the term before. However, I recognise it as something I crave - more so in cold weather. That feeling of snuggliness and complete relaxation. For me, it means not knowing or caring what the time is and being completely immersed in joy - whether that be a creamy coffee, glass of wine, film, song (Buble at Xmas - no judgment!), baking, lighting a candle, bubble bath.
Not sure it warrants a phrase or a marketing pitch - the chore of shopping for it would be the complete antithesis of it!

Tea can be really lovely Frustrated. (When not for a quite formal invitation.)

We have it sometimes with cucumber sandwiches with white bread and butter, salmon sanwiches made of brown bread and butter, other sandwiches, muffins or crumpets or scones and then cake. It's nice to light a fire to go with it too if it's cold.

I think some older British people are especially able to make tea ritualised, comforting and loving.

"Have a cup of tea," as a solution to anything, can mean, "Have some of my love and comfort," in my opinion.

I'm Danish and reading this with interest. Hygge (noun) is clearly hard to explain so we will have to do with people's descriptions of things they find hyggelige (adj)! I speak Danish to my children (live in the U.K.) and some times find myself saying to them (in danish) 'aren't we just having the most hyggelige time?!' By that I mean we are having fun, laughing lots and perhaps cuddling on the sofa. Or we are having a drink and snack together at the table and chatting about stuff. And by saying to each other 'this is a hyggelig time' that makes it even more hyggeligt. It brings attention to the togetherness in the moment and makes people smile. So that's hygge for me. Doesn't have to involve candles, although it's true in Denmark that is very much used.

Frustrated no one else can pronounce sc-ohhhhnes either. They call them SCONNs for some reason

I did a weird snorty laugh that sounded like a wild animal when I read about Cummenroond.

I am right on THAT bandwagon.

I have an old tin of Quality Street full of wasted markers and broken crayons on the table, some bubble wrap I haven't quite finished popping, and some crumbs from where I ate the last of the caramel digestives. Yesterday.

What is the Cummenroond bandwagon, Doinit?

Go back a few pages and you'll find it.

I think it was invented for this thread.

A British approach to winter.

I've not caught on to this trend yet.

However, from reading this thread, I think that this is something that I endeavour for in everyday life. To enjoy our home and each other...

I found the Cummenroond Doinit. So funny especially with the added images of old sweet wrappers, coffee cup rings, dog hairs, old dregs, the smell of fan heater burning dust - a sort of Withnail and Iish refined English, cosy, squalidness.

Do Danish people have a greater propensity to knit that those in the U.K.?

Hmmm I dont know Eddie.

I can knit crochet embroider cross stitch and use a sewing machine. I can not remember not knowing how to do those things. They were clearly taught to me at an very early age.

However my closest childhood friend is unable to crochet and embroider. She knits and cross stitch though.

In the UK I know people who can do all or some of them and people who can do none of them.

In DK everyone I know can do some. However I come from a very creative and crafty family So this may have a bearing

Interesting! My grandmother could do all of those things, my house is full of her patchwork and her embroidered cushions are finally falling to bits. I don't know anyone who can in my peer group except one person who is motivated to the point of it being an actual career.

Yes, annoys me too but more from the point of view that it is what people generally do in winter anyway. It's not like we have wood burning stoves that we all sat and looked at unlit while shivering on the sofa under bright lights wearing our summer gear before we heard about hygge??!!