Readers, we need your help. Seattle needs your help.
The Seattle Times wants to put together the ultimate guide to banishing the January grays.
So we are looking for your favorite recipe for coziness. What do you do? How do you hype the hygge around your house once the holidays are over and the dark days are here for real? Hot chocolate plus what? We want to know.
By midnight Friday, Dec. 21, please email Elisa Murray at emurray@seattletimes.com with:
- Your favorite recipe for coziness
- Your name
- Your location
Most Read Life Stories
You can name an outing, a favorite home activity, a work break. Tell a little story. Bonus points for inventiveness and local flavor.
We will choose a selection to publish in an article next month.
We are also asking our newsroom to contribute ideas. To inspire you, here are three from staffers:
1. The great indoors
As someone who basically never goes outside if she can possibly avoid it (what’s sunshine going to give you but sweat, wrinkles and skin cancer?), I don’t know why anyone needs a recipe to get cozy. Just do it! The great indoors, if you are lucky enough to have shelter, is delightful all year-round. Read a great book! Watch a great movie! Curl up on the couch with your cat! (What, you don’t have a cat? GET A CAT.) Should you have further questions for me — and why would you? — you can find me in my favorite armchair, drinking the nectar of the gods (Diet Coke, which needs no recipe) and dreading the inevitable arrival of spring.
— Moira Macdonald
2. Pajamas in public
Ingredients:
Comfy pajamas
Big coat
Weather-appropriate footwear
Grocery list for favorite comfort food or beverage of choice
Recipe:
— Wake up in comfy pajamas and leave them on.
— Apply weather appropriate footwear and big coat (optional: put on a hat if your bedhead hair is particularly wild).
— Walk/drive/bus to your nearest grocery store.
— Walk the aisles of the store with nary a care in the world that you are a grown human adult wearing your pajamas in public.
— Acquire supplies for your favorite comfort food/beverage (mine is mulled wine …)
— Return home, prepare comfort food/drink in your pajamas, enjoy the rest of the day cozy in your pajamas and with your favorite comfort food/drink at hand.
— Crystal Paul
3. Cozy at the conservatory
Seattle’s charming Victorian-style Volunteer Park Conservatory is steamy warm, with beautiful blooms and a lovely, earthy smell that’s a dose of tropical paradise without leaving town. (Editor’s note: And the conservatory offers free admission through February!)
— Madeline McKenzie