Warm and cozy, it’s got hygge written all over it. Just don’t look for it in the big city. Photo by Vito Fun on Flickr.
It’s a fad you’ll be hearing about everywhere. It’s all about comfort, coziness and connectedness. It’s the subject of a rush of new books. It’s a fad, and it won’t last forever. But it’s also connected to larger trends in society that are good for rural. If we can just figure out how to say it.
First, what is hygge? It’s a Danish word, roughly rhyming with “cougar.” There isn’t a simple, one-word English equivalent, but people are using “coziness” as a starting point.
It’s about enjoying simple pleasures with friends. The perfect hygge might be the warm togetherness of friends coming in out of a snowstorm to enjoy a simple hot cocoa in front of the fire.
Sounds like a rural thing to me. I mean, I can’t really picture that kind of relaxed conviviality in a busy urban setting. Which leads me to write to you about it.
Rural places excel at hygge. That’s marketable to potential visitors.
Will hygge be a quick fad or a longer-lived trend? I can’t say, but it fits into a larger societal trend that isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
“Hygge is part of a broader set of trends around the complexities of modern times leading people to seek or at least yearn for a simpler, gentler life,” Steve King said.
See what I mean? A simpler, gentler life. We’re all over that. How many hygge-style experiences could you list for your place? When you have that, get to work on writing a Top 10 Hygge Experiences in (My Town) article or setting it up as a Pinterest board.
Then, even after hygge isn’t a hot topic, you can keep talking about your simpler life and gentler activities people can enjoy in your small town.
More reading on Hygge:
What is hygge? at Small Biz Labs looks at how it’s being used to sell products
Comfort Consumerism in J. Walter Thompson Intelligence talks about the larger trend it fits into
A Dutch news story on Hygge (in Dutch, of course) passed along by my friend Stephanie Ward who lives in the Netherlands, proving it’s not just a UK/USA fad
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
