One of the things I am coming to appreciate about hygge and the Danish language in particular is their fondness for lumping all sorts of words together to create a new one.  The new words just take on a life of their own after a while, and enter common usage.

You can see this a lot with hygge. There are so many little words and phrases that sound so much happier with hygge in front. Marie Tourell Søderberg has a whole dictionary of them in her book, Hygge; The Danish Art of Happiness, and Meik Wiking listed quite a few in his Little Book of Hygge.

Baggrundshygge: Hygge in the background e.g. music, birds singing, children playing. In my house, it’s usually football on TV.

Cafehygge: Having a hyggelig time in a hyggelig cafe.

Fredagshygge: Or Saturdayhygge or Sundayhygge. Basically hyggering on a weekend day.

Hyggebamse: One of my favourites; it means a hygge teddy!

Now, I’ve been trying to learn Danish for a couple of years now (failing miserably at the pronunciation) and I like this bang-them-together-and-see-if-they-work approach to word invention. But since getting people to accept hygge as a word has been hard enough, I’m not sure the rest of Liverpool is ready for hyggeaften, hyggebold or hyggeloesning yet. I feel happy that my daughter now automatically lights the candles on my fireplace and tells me it’s time to hygge. Small victories are important.

But I don’t see why the words shouldn’t be used in a Danglish way, a mix of Danish and English. That’s my plan this weekend. I am going to use as many compound terms for hygge as I can, mixing them with the English where I have to and using the Danish where I want to. That’s going to be fun.

So this weekend, I am going to go home to tidy my hyygenook, and make sure there’s plenty of hyggebooks in it, before I drink my hyggetea (or hyggechai) and watch the hyggetv…. (that’s not going to work as one, I think)….. and have some moviehygge tonight, with popcorn and coke.

Saturday will be a spot of hyggesleep before I have my hyggelunch and a hyggeafternoon with the kids before visiting my parents for strictlyhygge and a drink of hyggewine. X factorhygge is another one that doesn’t have the right feel, so I’ll give that a miss before a hyggecuddle and some hyggefootie on Match of the Day.

Sunday is Church and I’m on creche, so plenty of hyggefun to be had there, then familyhygge with a walk in the (predicted) sunshine and a hyggechai while I write my hyggelists of things I need to do to be more hyggely this year! Hyggemeal (pork, mash and gravy =yum!) and then Sundayhygge with Poldark. Hyggesleep again, before hyggework on Monday. I love my life!

What do you think? Can I get so many compound words in in one weekend? We’ll see!

And my weekend gift to you; some proper Danglish hygge food!

Delia Smith’s recipe for Pork braised in Apple Cider Vinegar. She describes this as having a beautiful Autumnal feel to it. Casseroles are hyggefood in an instant, and this one I know is a real warmer!

Scandikitchen’s recipe for Kladdkaka or Swedish Mud Pie cake. It’s sticky, gooey and you are convinced you’ve done it wrong and you should just throw it out, but my oh my it is GOOD. We had it mid-week. I thought I’d made it on Tuesday for the Bake Off on Wednesday but it didn’t last that long. I’m making it again, possibly on Sunday for our Poldarkhygge.