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Autumn windowsill with lit candles, rose hip branches and a cup of tea in the rain Typisch schwedisch Emma Nord Mys ♥
hej ♥
Sweden
in everyday life

Typically Swedish

Mys

When it gets dark outside, you light a candle inside.

Softly spoken

A feeling, not a program

During my first autumn in Småland, I noticed that there was a candle in almost every window. Not in the evening to welcome guests, but just because, in the middle of the day.

I asked what it was for. The answer was a shrug: för att mysa. To make it nice. Not for guests, not for a photo. Simply because the day was there.

Summery garden table with coffee, a cinnamon bun and strawberries in the golden evening sun
Open book, steaming tea and a candle on a windowsill looking out at a red house in the autumn rain
Hands in a wool sweater holding a steaming cup of glögg by a misty lake at winter dusk
Two wooden chairs on a porch with strawberries and a view across the meadow to the lake on a summer evening
Woman putting on wool socks in the hallway of a cabin, a lake at dusk behind her
Wintry parlor with a paper star, candlesticks, a stove and fresh pastries by a snowy window
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Mys comes in many forms

Four ways to make things cozy

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For your evening

Mys at home

You don’t need a special occasion or a tidy living room for this.

  • Dim the lights. Switch off the harsh ceiling light and light a few real candles – Swedes call this mood lighting mysbelysning.
  • Hold something warm in your hands. Tea, coffee, glögg in winter. The mug warms you even before you drink.
  • A blanket your feet fit under. Chunky knit, heavy enough that you want to stay lying down.
  • And then: plan nothing more. No to-do list, no second screen. The evening can be just as it is.
What I’ve learned from watching

In Germany, I believed for a long time that the nice evening came at the end: first get everything done, then maybe the candle.

In Sweden it works the other way around. You make things cozy because the evening is here – not as a reward for having earned it. I’m still practicing that.

“Not the perfect evening.
Just the one you make cozy.”

Goes well with

More typically Swedish

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Images: Pexels · my own photos · AI