Celebrating New Years Eve can be tricky when you have little ones , especially during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, however we are embracing our ‘night in’ with the kids and having a Hygge Night!
What on earth is ‘Hygge’ I hear you ask?
We discovered what a Hygge night is via our sister site Stag Mumbler and had one last year. We loved it so much that we are doing it again this year to bring in 2020!
‘Hygge’ pronounced “hoo-ga” is a Danish concept which encompasses a feeling of Cosy contentment, through enjoying the simple things in life.
We have been lucky to have had some great quality family time already over Christmas. New Years Eve will be a great way to round off the year, taking advantage of the time we have together as a family, with no distractions.
If you’d like to have a Hygge night, here are some ideas and inspiration:
- Choose a room to get cosy...it could be the lounge or a bedroom, wherever you choose. We love our aptly named ‘snug’ which we LOVE to spend time in, so we’ll be having our Hygge night in there!
- Do everything you can to make it look and feel different. Last year we had blankets, duvets, fluffy pillows and every single teddy that the kids own downstairs. The kids loved jumping in to a teddy bear ‘ball-pit’!
- Lighting is key – choose cosy lamps, candles, fairy lights over the ‘big light’
- Make a den! Our kids love to make a den and to be honest it is mostly Daddy who likes to get involved in this, whilst I put it all back in to place again when they’re finished! During our Hygge night though, I will be getting involved in building a den big enough for us all to fit in!
- Put on your cosiest clothes. Whether that is PJ’s, sweatpants, whatever, make sure your comfy and cosy.
- Grab some dinner or yummy snacks. We will probably opt for some ‘party’ food on a platter such as sausage rolls, chicken wings, ribs, crisps, pizza etc. The kids love it when we do this. We might also bake something so that we have some home made sweet treats, plus it’s likely that we will polish off a lot of the Christmas chocolate! We also love hot chocolate with marshmallows, which is the ultimate way to get cosy.
- Choose your entertainment – the kids got so many games for Christmas, with a favourite this year being good old fashioned trump cards! So we will most definitely be playing a game or two. We’ll also watch a family film in our cosy Hygge den, plus it will be a great opportunity to talk about our favourite memories of the year, chat about our dream holiday, tell jokes, play with Lego and other toys that the kids got for Christmas, read some books…the list of things we could do is endless…good job we have until midnight! The kids are still talking about last New Years Eve now and are so excited to do it again. They actually really enjoyed watching Jools Holland for the countdown, so I think this has now become a family tradition.
- Write about your experience – we’ll be encouraging the kids to write about their night or draw a picture. Great for the memory box or for showing at school.
- Most of all – we are going to relax and enjoy it! Everyone has such busy lives, life can be tough and goes so quickly. It really doesn’t seem two minutes since our last new years eve, it’s been a busy year! We’re looking forward to treasuring the special times and making time for them. I’m looking forward to having lots of cuddles and fun, whilst the children are young enough to still want to spend New Years with Mum and Dad!
Whatever you’re doing, we’re all hoping for a happy and healty New Year!
Caroline x
