The Danish have a word, hygge, that crudely translates to "cozy." More accurately, it translates to, that profoundly content feeling you get when it's frigid outside but you're inside wearing flannel and drinking hot toddies in front of a fire.
Hygge, pronounced "hoo-gah," is a bit of a polysemy. It's derived from the Norwegian word for "well-being," and you can feel hygge, be hygge, or do hygge. Denmark's official tourism website has a page called "The art of Danish hygge," which explains that hygge high season starts at Christmas, "when Danes pull out all the hygge stops," but reassures you that you can still experience hygge in the summer. "Picnics in the park, barbeques with friends, outdoor concerts, street festivals and bike rides can all be very hygge." According to the BBC, hygge is even a course subject at Morley College in London.
Hygge is also the best way to explain the principles of Scandinavian design. Think of it like an aesthetic adaptation to the harsh winters there; when it's below freezing and dark for 16 hours a day, making your indoor environment warm and welcoming is imperative. As Fredrik Carlström, the founder of a Scandinavian design studio called Austere, put it to me (in a separate interview), "Scandinavian design isn't austere. It’s what is outside that’s austere and it makes our homes really nice." It's why furniture and lighting from that part of the world is of such high caliber.
If you're not yet hip to hygge, now might be a good time to embrace the Danish attitude towards the cold. Menacing news reports of the "crippling" and "deadly" blizzard that's headed for the east coast will remind you to stock up on bottled water and batteries. (And you should, we're not here to be flippant about potentially dangerous storms). But hygge, aptly described by this travel website as, "the art of creating intimacy," might help you pull through, too.
