Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.

Walt Whitman

Shed that light through Random Acts of Kindness. Here are as many as I could think of in the time available to me.

1. Letting cars join a queue that you are waiting in. This works for people in shops, too.
2. Bake cookies and leave them on a neighbour’s step for when they get home.
3. Clear up after others in the restaurant or coffee shop. Clear up after yourself as well.
4. Join a choir singing in old folks homes or at the supermarket.
5. Add extra tins to your weekly shop and donate to the local foodbank.
6. Just donate online anyway. Foodbanks are always busy, and especially at Christmas. They can spend the cash on the products they are low in.
7. Most coffee shops do a Pay It Forward scheme, or find one that does and shop there specifically.
8. Make sure you tip, and that the server gets all the tips.
9. Collect litter when you go for a walk. Carry poop bags or pedal bin liners specifically to do this.
10. Take to leaving spare change on a wall near to a coffee shop or supermarket.
11. Smile at everyone you meet. Say ‘Merry Christmas!’ and really mean it.
12. Leave a basket or box out for the delivery people that are calling at your door every day with a couple of bottles of water, a few small packets of sweets or snacks and a sign saying “Thank you for the work you do! Please take a sweet and a bottle, too”. Keep it replenished for the month. This works if you’re the manager of a store or admin in an office or school, too.
13. Wrap gifts for someone. Older people, or ones with arthritic hands might appreciate it, especially if you offer to come in and be their hands so they get to choose wrap, trimmings etc. A young parent might appreciate an hour of babysitting to leave them free to wrap themselves.
14. Carry individually wrapped coffee portions, teabags or hot chocolate sachets and give to randomers you meet.
15. Leave notes or positive quotes in library books for the next borrower to find. I like this idea so much, I think it would work with books in a bookshop. Keep the message simple and unoffensive to all.
16. Donate excess: excess bedding, excess clothes, excess food, excess craft stuff, excess time, excess money.
17. Collect memes that make you laugh or illustrated quotes and post them online. Tag friends, or leave them to be liked by your followers.
18. Babysit children or elderly relatives for a friend or neighbour who needs the space. They both need careful consideration, but something to eat and something to do works well for both.
19. Send a care package to a student or a serviceman or woman. You can contact your local university or barracks for suitable candidates.
20. Volunteer to be the Designated Driver more than your fair share.
21. Put a small chocolate bar in a Christmas card with a note explaining that it’s a gift from a stranger and carry a few with you to pop on windscreens or leave on serving counters as you go about your day. The card means the person will know you meant to leave the bar, and that it’s for them.
22. Deliver thank you/Christmas cards to all the emergency centres in your district: fire, ambulance, walk-in centres or hospitals.
23. Check local charity websites for Amazon wishlists, or ring up a local charity and ask if there’s a small thing they need that you could buy.
24. Deliver lightly used books to the local library. I donated quite a few I’d read once before passing them on.
25. Leave some fresh flowers on a stranger’s grave, especially one that looks unattended and recent.
26. Get in early, and take fresh flowers to the local care home for the common room or staffroom.
27. Resolve to only be positive on any social media for the month. Compliment people, do a Pollyanna and only see the positive or, if you know that certain kinds of social media set you off, keep away and stay in the happy, cheerful pool (like The Hygge Nook).
28. Call old friends that you haven’t seen and have a good chat. Call old relatives or neighbours as well. If you’re local, and have time, knock on their door and say hello.
29. Did I say donate old clothes, books, toys, clothes etc to a local charity or hospice shop?
30. Start planning ahead by contacting local charities to find out ways to volunteer come the new year.
31. Volunteer to read stories to the children in a school or library. This is probably a long term decision, especially given safeguarding concerns, but you may find some schools are prepared to let you tell tales of your past (the kids call it history) as long as you’re happy to answer questions about the 70s, 80s or beyond!
32. Donate blood, or sign up to the organ donor’s scheme. Some countries have an opt-out system, so make sure you’re whichever position you want to be.
33. Create a Spotify list of happy seasonal songs and share it on Social.
34. Use washable chalk pens and write a positive message on your own windows, or on a mirror in a cafe etc. If the cafe is amenable, you could offer to write a different positive quotation a day! Fika coffee shop near me post a Thought for the Day on a chalkboard on social media and for real in the cafe.
35. Buy from smaller, local businesses. Leave some of the change for them to boost their profits, especially if you’re buying from crafters at craft markets.
36. Carry paper hearts in your pocket and drop them onto tables where people sit alone. Make sure they don’t see you doing it!
37. Paint rocks with supportive words or quotations and hide them around the neighbourhood. The right word may well meet the right person just when they need it most!
38. Make pine cone angels and leave them around for strangers to find and take home as well.
39. For a touch of delayed gratification, plant some bulbs or seeds in a garden where you know someone will appreciate them.
40. Find a waterproof box or cupboard and start a Free Library. Be warned! They can be very fancy.
41. Invite someone from school, university or church to spend Christmas dinner with you, if the alternative is they’re going to be alone.
42. Always park the furtherest away from the store that you can. That leaves nearer spaces for those who need them (and, yes, sometimes that does mean watching the young man in a red Tesla jumping into his car parked in a disabled space. Life is not fair)
43. Sing and hum wherever you are. Be a fool. Dance to the music in the shops, singalong, join in the actions. Make others laugh.
44. Take time to greet people in the street. Do a Scrooge and say hello to them all.

Nobody could ever have time or ability to do them all. Don’t even try to keep count, just do what you can, when you can for whom you can. I’m sure there are a thousand little acts of kindness I’ve forgotten… let me know, and I’ll keep adding to them.

How to Hygge the British Way is my gift to the world. I don’t get paid for writing it, I’m not in it for the kudos, financial rewards, to become an influencer, work with brands or otherwise make any money from the blog. That’s why there are no ads, and any products I mention and recommend have either been gifted to me or bought by me with my everyday wages or donations from supporters. Every book I review has been bought and read by me, unless stated otherwise.

I do get a couple of pennies each time someone buys from the Amazon links on my page, as an Amazon Affiliate, but otherwise if you’d like to support me, I like to give something back in return. That’s why I write books. It always feels good if you get a book back in return for some money. You can find a full list of my books at my Author’s Page on Amazon, but especially recommended for this time of year are:

Cosy Happy Hygge: Setting up a rhythm to life and rituals to enjoy it to make for a more balanced life that handles waves and storms better. Lent is a season of rituals and resets. The book has small and easy ways to make your life flow with grace and happiness, which lead to more hygge.

Happier: Probably my most personal book, it’s the story of how I used hygge and the little things in life to help boost my happiness. I still go back and reread to remind myself what I need to do to be a happy human. And it’s always the little things.

My Christmas books are always available: Have Yourself a Happy Hygge Christmas is a good place to start, on how to make the season cosier, happier. Celebrating a Contagious Christmas was written during covid year, but has useful advice on celebrating when times are hard anyway and Enjoying a Self-Care Christmas is a short e-book on keeping Christmas simpler, easier and better for you, your waistline and your budget. It even includes 25+ suggestions for self-care activities over Christmas, as simple as sipping tea, keeping a list journal or lighting a candle. Bigger is not always better for Christmas.

I’m currently working on two book projects: I have a hankering to rewrite 50 Ways to Hygge the British Way, so it’s not available at the moment, but even dearer to my heart and my next stated aim is to finish and publish my next book, Simple Plus Cosy = Hygge. It will be about homemaking and how the home we create shapes the hygge we have. Hopefully it will be finished by the end of spring/summer.

If you’d like to support me, but don’t want to buy a book, I have a Paypal.Me account as Hygge Jem. Every little helps, so even a few pence goes towards the books, goods and courses I use and recommend on the site. I’m grateful for every little bit that brings me closer to my dream of full-time writing, and I know I couldn’t still be writing if it weren’t for the support of many readers and friends out there. Thank you all for every little bit of support, emotional, physical and financial, you give me.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, don’t forget to share it or save it so others can enjoy reading, thinking about and living hygge as well.

The photo between post and promotions is by Laura Nyhuis on Unsplash. I’m using it from now until January as a real reminder of the power of light. I loved the simplicity of the shot, the focus on the one candle, the reminder that there are many lights out there if we open our hearts to them and the combination of candle and nature in creating a cosy Christmas.