Pack up your candles, blankets and cinnamon buns because ‘hygge’ – the Danish lifestyle obsession of 2016 – has given way to ‘lagom’ – another Scandi buzzword we’ll no doubt be saying wrong for the majority of 2017 (FYI, it’s pronounced ‘law-gum’).
The Swedish term is all about celebrating frugality, fairness and balance to find contentment. It comes form the phrase 'Lagom är bäst', which literally translates as 'the right amount is best'. It applies to all areas of life - whether that's eating and drinking, your spending or how many hours you clock up in the office. That old adage about there being virtue in moderation seems to ring truest for our Nordic neighbours - just look at their interior design.
In the past six months, there’s been a marked increase in the number of Google searches for the word,it was Tweeted over 13,500 times in the last quarter of 2016 and there are almost 20,000 posts hashtagged #lagom on Instagram. Hygge-who, right?
So, if hygge was all about creating a feeling of cosiness in an otherwise dark and depressing world (it was 2016, after all) what does living a more ‘lagom’ lifestyle entail?
‘I think hygge captures a moment in time, whether that be a short break in the day or something you try and work into your life every day,’ Elliot Stocks, author of Bristol-based magazine Lagom, told the BBC. ‘Lagom is an overarching concept behind your life in general. Rather than fitting a bit of lagom into your day, it’s more about your approach to your life as a whole.’
The New Year seems like the perfect time to start injecting a little 'lagom' into our lives - whether its being frugal with our spending, more balanced with our diets or simply adopting new habits that will benefit both the environment and our energy bills - so why not start 2017 living a little more thriftily? Goldilocks might have been on to something...