Embracing Hygge this holiday season
When the team was brainstorming and discussing themes for this year’s holiday activities, we kept gravitating to the word “home.” It encapsulated what we feel most of us have been craving after the past two years filled with the pandemic, discourse, and the stress of adapting to the ever-changing world around us.
Yes, it can be home in the literal sense of spending time with family and friends we’ve missed, fine-tuning those mad baking skills we embraced during a lockdown, or reminding ourselves to take a break and enjoy the world around us. But as we discussed it, ‘home’ meant so much more to each of us. It was a connecting with colleagues and clients; it was that feeling of collective joy when we celebrate each other’s accomplishments (work and personal); it was being back in the office laughing and creating together.
Hygge (pronounced hoo-guh) is a Danish and Norwegian word for a feeling or moment when you feel comfort, joy, content, happiness, or kinship. Hygee is that feeling you get sitting in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and a sleeping pup, a Zoom moment sharing holiday traditions with clients, a virtual celebration of a job well done, or a heartfelt thank you. In a given moment, it is that feeling that feels good, familiar, and a little like home.
So, this holiday season, the DSC team wants to bring a little hygge to your life by celebrating traditions from around the world, sharing some of our favorite work and personal tips, and offering our gratitude for each of you and each other. Our company mission is “to infuse marketing and events with joy, and unexpected moments that inspire action and make our clients look great,” this holiday, we hope we can extend that to bring joy, connection, and hygge into each of your lives.
First stop: Israel
The joy of jelly donuts
This holiday season, we want to share the ways different cultures celebrate around the world. The first stop on our global tour takes us to Israel, where people eat sufganiyot, a traditional pastry enjoyed during Hanukkah. These jelly-filled donuts are a staple during this time of the year as the fried treats symbolize the miracle of one night of oil lasting for eight. The most common way to prepare sufganiyot is to fry balls of yeast dough filled with strawberry jelly and dusted with powdered sugar; however, the possibilities are endless.
During Hanukkah, schools are closed for break, menorahs can be seen in windows of homes and atop prominent buildings, and festivals and shows occur throughout the country. The annual Hanukkah Torch Relay marks the beginning of the holiday in Israel. People line the streets from Modi’in (outside Tel Aviv) to the Western Wall in Jerusalem as runners pass a burning torch from hand to hand. The torch then lights the giant hanukkiah (menorah) at the Western Wall.
Holiday calendar
Daily surprises
We’ve created an interactive holiday calendar to follow along as we celebrate the close of 2021 and in great anticipation of the wonders that lie ahead in ’22.
