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If your last few Christmas seasons have been filled with stress and overwhelm, it’s time to learn how to have a Hygge Christmas. Hygge is a Norwegian word coined by the Danish, meaning comfy, cozy, warm, nostalgic, and laced with a sense of well-being. So, besides that part of the world having a lot of snow in December, what do Hygge and Christmas have to do with each other?
Well…you already know…even if you think you don’t. You know how old-fashioned Christmas-themed things make you go, “Awwwww…..” even if you’ve never experienced an old-fashioned Christmas? Do you like the Hallmark Christmas Channel, no matter how cheesy? It is because everything is sweet, simple, and solved in 90 minutes. Are you one of the fortunate souls holding warm Christmas memories that fill you with yearning for a simpler time? Those are all the feelings that Hygge brings to us. It’s a sense of sweet, cozy, warm, comforting and nostalgic. The 10 Principles Of Hygge That Will Change Your Life
But That’s Not What My Family Christmas Feels Like.
Many people, especially moms, are experiencing a very different kind of Christmas season. The social calendar is crazy, the budget can get wonky, and expectations are high to try to create something meaningful. But a lot of times…you just aren’t feeling it. So, how do you figure out how to have a Hygge Christmas when you feel overwhelmed or underwhelmed and not into the whole thing?
The trick is to start thinking of your holiday season with a more Hygge Christmas attitude as early as possible. The sooner you connect and commit to doing Christmas calmer and cozier, the easier it will be to make a Hygge Christmas a reality. Whether you are reading this in November or July, it’s time to start asking yourself some meaningful questions and following these 7 Festive steps to show you how to have a Hygge Christmas.
How To Have A Hygge Christmas Festive Step #1:
What Does Christmas Mean To You, And Why Are You Celebrating It?
Let’s first establish that your Hygge Christmas can be whatever you want it to be. If Christmas is a deeply spiritual time for you, then that is what your Hygge Christmas focus will be. If it’s about the people you care about, who care about you, then there is another point in your Christmas star.
Maybe you believe relatives are the people you are related to, but family are the people you choose to include in your life. There is a reason that Friends-Giving is so popular on Instagram. When you wonder how to have a Hygge Christmas, build it around people who feel warm, safe, cozy, and comforting. Who are those people? Make them your focus.
But I Have Family Obligations.
It’s okay to have the obligatory family Christmas. Then have a Hygge Christmas with the people you really want to spend Christmas with at another time. You can also do what is socially norm and then have a quiet Hygge Christmas for two or just one.
If you love decorating trees, singing carols, wrapping presents, and baking cookies, then keep all of that in your Hygge Christmas. But do it in a more relaxed, quiet, and no-stress kind of way. Do you really need six dozen cooking and four types of fudge? Do you have to have three Christmas trees, or will one be okay? If you love doing it, DO IT! If it’s more of an obligation or “just what we’ve always done,” you might skip it this year.
Maybe you don’t care for any of the tinsel and sugar cookie business. Then, book a flight somewhere with palm trees, go camping in the backyard, or borrow a cabin in the woods. The way to have a Hygge Christmas is to build it around what feels sweet, warm, comfy, relaxing, cozy, safe, and maybe even nostalgic to you. Whatever that looks like for you is your Hygge Christmas. The 10 Principles Of Hygge That Will Change Your Life
How To Have A Hygge Christmas Festive Step #2:
Get Clear On What Matters To You In The Christmas Season.
The Christmas season can cover a lot of beliefs and expressions for each of us. Other religious holidays also take place during the season. You may observe one or do a mix-and-match holiday hybrid to acknowledge other friends’ and families’ cultures. You may be of another spiritual belief yourself and like observing Christmas too. You may just consider Christmas a fun winter festival of lights, and you like playing with paper, bows, tinsel, and ornaments.
Any of those are perfect. But what does it all mean to you? The best way to have a Hygge Christmas is to clarify what matters to you in the Christmas season. Often, we try to do…everything and wind up enjoying…nothing.
What touches your heart and makes you smile with childlike wonder when you think of Christmas? What is it that speaks to you? Are you still trying to figure out where to start? Here are some examples to get you started.
- If this truly is a strong spiritual time for you, how would you best express and experience this time of year?
- If food is your love language, it may be about baking for the neighbors and making loved ones’s favorite dishes.
- Do you enjoy making and sharing hand-crafted gifts with the special people in your life? You will want to start early and allow yourself the time to make whatever it is you like to make with love and attention, not rushed and anxious.
- If it’s all about connection, you will want to plan and schedule time with those who matter to you. This doesn’t have to be a full Christmas dinner on December 25. It could be having the neighbors over for wine and charcuterie, having lattes with the girls, or caroling with the pickleball group. It doesn’t matter what you do; it’s about connecting during the holiday season.
Need More Examples?
- Do you love the nostalgia of snowmen, tinsels, gingerbread houses, twinkle lights, and big bows? Maybe you like classic white lights and greenery with little fuss or unique decorations like feathered Christmas trees and anything that makes the neighbors scratch their heads. It doesn’t matter. It’s your Christmas. What do you like?
- What if what you want differs from what other people in the house like? Then do it all! Make a mish-mash of it with different trees or decor in different rooms. This is your Hygge Christmas; you get to do it your way. The 10 Principles Of Hygge That Will Change Your Life
- Maybe whatever everyone else wants is okay with you. You just need to have some quiet Christmas time for yourself. You need to sip Irish Hot Chocolate while you enjoy your tree…in the dark…by yourself. Maybe you need to make your own Christmas outing with no one else in your face or your head. If that sounds like “Comfort and Joy” to you, then that is what needs to happen.
Whatever matters for you in the Christmas season is where you focus. Yes, dirty Santa at the company Christmas party may be on the calendar. Perhaps dinner at the in-laws still needs to happen. Then, making sure the kids get whatever it is kids want this year may still have to be a thing. But WHAT MATTERS TO YOU?
How To Have A Hygge Christmas Festive Step #3:
Get Clear On Who Matters This Christmas Season.
One thing that can hinder your Hygge Christmas is trying to do too much with too many. You can’t see everyone who has ever mattered to you in one month. Often, we try to do something with each set of friends, something with each business relationship, and something with every relative and friend you have had since 8th grade. That’s a lot.
Who really matters to you, and who is obligatory? Who do you not even enjoy but…well, you’ve always done a get-together for the holidays. Maybe this is the year to sort out who needs to be in your Hygge Christmas and who doesn’t. There is something sweet about suggesting, “Let’s have coffee AFTER the holidays and catch up.”
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when focusing on too many people. No one has extended your days or how long a 31-day month really is just because it’s December. So who matters and would be a pleasure to have in your Hygge Christmas, and who might have to wait or maybe skip altogether?
How To Have A Hygge Christmas Festive Step #4:
What Parts Of Christmas Past Do You Want To Hold On To Or Recreate?
Just like the movie A Christmas Carol, we all have a Christmas past, present, and future. Something about Christmas brings nostalgia. Usually, even those who drew the tough or rigid childhood card have a sweet Christmas story to share.
What part of Christmas past would you like to experience again? Was it midnight mass or your Aunt’s sugar cookies? Was it a live tree or one of those 1960’s aluminum ones? Was it Silent Night, sung by the church choir, or Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, sung on the car’s FM radio? What is your Christmas story? What were your traditions?
Maybe life has had a lot of change. Perhaps the old traditions didn’t serve you or bring joy. Then, create new ones. Take the parts of Christmas you remember liking and start your new traditions. There are no rules!! If it feels warm, cozy, sweet, and Christmasy to you, it is now part of your Hygge Christmas. The 10 Principles Of Hygge That Will Change Your Life
How To Have A Hygge Christmas Festive Step #5:
It’s ok to break tradition.
This may be something no one ever told you, but your Hygge Christmas doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s Christmas. It doesn’t even have to look like any Christmas you have ever had before.
There’s nothing wrong with having Chinese food for Christmas Eve and your favorite spaghetti and meatballs for Christmas Day. There is nothing wrong with going somewhere without a pine tree or a candle in sight.
Volunteer somewhere that really needs someone like you on Christmas Day. Spend Christmas Eve Day hiking the Appalachian trail and toast marshmallows with Christmas Eve dinner. We once had a client who visited a Buddhist Meditation Ashram for Christmas Eve because she wanted to know what it was like to be in a different culture during such a traditional time. You get to make new traditions or have no traditions at all.
How To Have A Hygge Christmas Festive Step #6:
Think Warm, Comforting, Cozy, Simple And Relaxed.
You’ll know how to have a Hygge Christmas if you focus on what makes you feel warm, comforting, cozy, simple, relaxed, and more like something that just fits where you are this year. The 10 Principles Of Hygge That Will Change Your Life
Regardless of what you do, don’t let it get bigger than you are. Don’t let it get bigger than your nerves and attention span can handle. You get to create your Hygge Christmas, so be good to yourself. Don’t put too many things in the last month of the year or the last week of December. This is your’s to plan. DO NOT plan anything that will stress you out, overwhelm you, make you anxious, or be something you just plain ole don’t want to do.
Give yourself plenty of time to do…everything, which means planning ahead. If it’s July and you need to start now…go for it. Also, plan rest time. Watch it snow through your bedroom window, or build a snowman by the driveway. Let soup simmer all day on the stove or at least in the crock pot, waiting for you when you get home.
Take charge of your Hygge Christmas, and let it be what you need it to be. Then decide next year if you want to do it again. Oh, and don’t worry about what others think about it. If they are honest, they will admire what you are doing and enjoy its benefits.
How To Have A Hygge Christmas Festive Step #7:
It’s Never Too Late To Have The Christmas Season You Haven’t Had Yet.
What if Christmas has just…never worked out right for you? Maybe family blah blah blah gets in the way. Perhaps you have always had a job where you needed to work during Christmas. Maybe you have been sad or alone during the holidays more than you have been in fa la la la la land.
It’s never too late to have the Christmas you haven’t had yet. What have you always hoped Christmas to be? Don’t go for a perfect world or one of those Hallmark movies. What would a lovely winter day in your life be like? What makes you smile using the options available? What Christmas sweetness have you not allowed for yourself before? Maybe it’s just a deep breath and allowing life to surround you. The 10 Principles Of Hygge That Will Change Your Life
Allow yourself to have the Christmas you never had. It doesn’t mean you have to spend more. It means watching for all the sweetness in the season and allowing it to be yours.
Whatever Day It Is, Get Ready To Have A Sweet, Comfy, Cozy, Warm Christmas Now.
Now you know how to have a Hygge Christmas. Start planning and see what happens when you let Christmas be what feels cozy, comforting, calming, and relaxing. Give this year a chance. This could be the year for the incredible, sweet, and simple Christmas you haven’t had yet. You can do it. You’ve got this.
Pixi-Pebbles For How To Have A Hygge Christmas.
Pixi-Pebbles are songs, quotes, videos, interviews, movie references, and books that we each personally pick for you.
We’ve used these little Pixi-Pebbles to move ourselves from a feeling we’re not enjoying very much…to a feeling that helps us discover our vision of intention, awareness, and direction.
They lead us to hope, possibilities, and a fire under our butt to live life by design instead of default.
In our blog, How To Have A Hygge Christmas in 7 Festive Steps, here is a Pixi-Pebble that came to mind…
Just a little inspiration to get you from here to there…
Here’s a little video for festive Christmas music and scenes to get your inspiring for having a wonderful Hygge Christmas.
