As we know, Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) is located in Northern Europe by saying. It is located in the four seasons region. Let us talk about one of the yearly seasons they have to experience. Yes, the winter season happens from December until March.
To anyone curious whether they like or dislike the winter, not all Scandinavians like winter, but still, in the end, they need to accept and tolerate the prolonged grey cold weather, even though each season has its features that bring enthusiasm and hope to welcoming and embracing the following season.
Seeing how enthusiastic they are in maintaining a sustainable and balanced life and thoughts and passion always amazes me, who comes from a tropical country. Let us take a closer look at how they manage this long winter.
1. Attitude
As I mentioned above, whether they like or dislike cold weather, they still have to embrace long, dark winters if they have no plan to go to other Europe countries that are warmer than Scandinavia. Changing your mindset is a must, even if it’s never been easy, and what must be prepared to face the long winter is to enjoy all the indoor and outdoor activities, fetes, foods, drinks, fruits, and scenes that only occur in winter. The feeling of hope to welcome springtime with its own thews will always be in the heart of Scandinavians and is also a part of the needed attitude during winter.
2. Stay warm in winter fashion
Scandinavians are extremely good at combining and matching winter clothes, which look stylish and pretty cool. They prefer to wear clothes in layers, and it’s okay if your turtle neck shirt looks over other shirts or woolen sweaters, still looking likable and classy. There is a reason why in layers as you do not want to sweat more underneath from the outside once you step into a heated room. Additional must-have accessories go a long way in preventing freezing, such as a lovely scarf, gloves or mittens, woolly hat, thick socks, and chic-comfortable slippers.
3. Light the scented candles and charming decorative lights
Before starting the day, to avoid the miserable feeling of the gloomy cold weather, lighting aromatized candles and gazing at the balmy dim lights early in the morning is a stretch that helps lift the mood. It does not wonder they invest in decorating their rooms with candles, decorative lights, fresh flowers, and plants and transforming spaces into cozy and comfortable places to chill after work or outdoor activities. Scandinavians must create a comfy atmosphere and a warm place to gather and chat with friends or family or even take time away and pamper themselves from the daily grind.
4. Out of shell and socialize
What Scandinavians like to do when it snows is get out of their comfort zone and spend time outside, skiing, dog sledding, cross-country skiing, taking nature walks, fishing or ice skating on frozen lakes, and some people even grill sausages in the open air, day time is too short to be wasted, not to forget grabbing a thermos filled with hot coffee, tea or cocoa, perfect for filling cold winter days.
During the daytime, they look forward to having a coffee or tea break.”Fika” is the popular name for a break time for swedes which usually consists of hot drinks and delicious cakes.
The weekend is coming, Friday evening, in wintertime never stops them from not having drinks and fun at the cafes with friends or family and enjoying their traditional hot spiced wine called glögg, gløgg, or glögi.
They also go to museums, parks, and forests, see concerts, watch a new movie at the cinema with friends or family, go bowling, and many other things to do for outdoor fun.
Just have fun and enjoy the moment!!!
5. Find new interests or explore passions
From my perspective, nothing can stop them from doing their hobbies in winter, no matter indoors or outdoors. Honing their baking or cooking skills by inventing new recipes or just making cookies or cakes for fika time or to treat themselves, learning crocheting, knitting, learning new languages, how to play chess, trying writing articles or blogs, learning how to edit videos, read books, watch movies, maybe try Yoga and meditate, watch documentary films, learn how to invest funds, learn bowling, ice skating, finish jigsaw puzzles or word puzzles, new card games, learn how to grow indoor plantations, practice sports more, clean the entire house and reorganize the wardrobe and so on, make a new song, be creative making new music, they try to occupy themselves. Keep positive and stay sane during wintertime.
6. Bring coziness mood to the house
While at home, they do fun things such as play cards, chess, karaoke, dance, puzzle, online gaming, and watch movies they can share with friends and family.
Besides scented candles, charming decorative lamps with dim lights, fresh flowers, and indoor plants, adding soft and thick warm blankets on the couch and for the bed and cozy rugs, painting the walls in a new color will bring a feeling of coziness and warmth into the house. Spending time with family and friends at home is like most Scandinavians. They are super good talkers among family and friends, but towards strangers, they seem cold. They can talk, discuss many issues, or chat and throw jokes accompanied by food, drinks, cakes, and candies.
7. Eat healthy foods and workout
In winter, our body temperature drops, and it works harder. The body needs more energy to keep warm.
The food we consume gives us energy, and there are many choices of foods to be eaten. Try to pick wisely what meals we eat. Choosing healthy food is essential for better protection and to increase our immune system during winter, the season in which cough, flu, and sore throat are common happened. The supplements and vitamins can be added as well if needed.
In the cold months, most people put weights on because the desire to eat is very high. It is very typical, especially during holidays when we are served and spoiled with delicious cakes, sweets, seasonal food, and traditional drinks that are rare to be available in other seasons, cold temperature makes us want to stay in bed and curl up longer due to lack of sunlight and the days get shorter, to stabilize the weight back to its original weight, we need to exercise a lot regularly to burn off any remaining calories and sugar we may be consuming and less active.
Aside from the benefits of doing exercise are not just for calories burned but also for heart health, increasing the immune system, and boosting the mood based on the studies. Scandinavians maintain their body by keeping the workout wherever and whenever they can.
8. Sauna
There is a facility provided we can use at the gym or swimming pool, a sauna as a self-reward after a workout before we leave for home, and have to face a cold wind with slippery roads, apart from getting relaxation after sauna, sauna bathing also gives us more advantages based on the studies mentioned increased circulation of blood, and metabolism, less pain, improved immune function, detoxification, skin revitalization, anti-aging, improved sleep, improved cardiovascular purpose, and tension control.
So if any of you have a holiday plan during the winter season or even plan to move temporarily or permanently to one of the Scandinavian countries, act like them, and I am pretty sure that you will make it through the winter and have a great time and enjoy yourself while doing so. Winter season is still pretty cool and not bad at all.
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