Oslo is growing emptier by the day as businesses are limiting opening hours, employees are working from home and crowds are banned. The city is preparing to suppress a second surge of Covid-19. The prospects of a family Christmas for those of us with family spread across the globe are slim.
Expecting the pandemic to put a damper on my excitement for the holidays, I was surprised to find that it seems to be the other way around. I could hardly get the the children off to their covid-proofed halloween parties soon enough yesterday. The minute I returned from dropping them off, the cobweb, skulls and pumpkins were packed away. I brought our small olive tree inside and strung it with fairy lights, filled the oil diffuser with a mix of citrus and pine, draped wool blankets over the sofas and sat down with a steaming cup of herbal tea and a vintage copy of a book about floral design.
"The more digital our lives become, the more we crave the physical" says the insightful owner of Studioilse, Ilse Crawford, and I am inclined to agree. After a day´s worth of work in front of a screen, limited in person social interaction, and not even a commute to offer a change of pace, I long to experience texture, flavour, temperature, scent and moments in nature.
A home that enhances everyday hygge during an otherwise gray season deserves to be seen as more than frills and consumerism. It may very well be the antidote to the distanced, digital and disheartening situation we are navigating.
Donate what you can to a cause you believe in.
Stay informed and stay safe.
Find ways to stay connected. To others. To your self.
IMAGE: OSLO/CHRISTIANIA AROUND 1880, FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE SWEDISH NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD
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