As this holiday season comes to a close and parts of the country face frigid temperatures,

this New Year's, we wanted to take a moment and explore a concept of comfort, warmth, and joy

that began in Scandinavian countries but has recently spread to America.

Our Dima Zane has this story about the art of Puga.

In the bitter cold of a Minnesota winter,

Inge Bretson's Nordic Marketplace offers an oasis of coziness.

Fuzzy blankets, socks and sweaters, a plethora of coffee mugs,

and lots and lots of candles.

We really think of the space as our home.

Anna Bloomstrand's great-grandfather started Inga Bretson's as a small corner market in the 1920s.

Folks still think of us as a space where people can come and explore items that connect them

to their cultural heritage.

We like to try to highlight that and make

it easy for people to explore the culture, even if they're not Scandinavian. In recent years,

that's meant leaning into a Scandinavian concept with growing popularity in the U.S. It's called

Kuga. Kuga is very near and dear to my heart. It means creating a warm environment,

snuggling in, reading books, sitting by the fire.

To make home a warm and happy place. Higa it's kind of like simplifying things, stepping back, letting things not be great.

Klaus Anderson is a professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Originally from Denmark, where Hugo is part of the national identity, Anderson

defines the term as pleasant togetherness.

It comes with this air of happiness, of contentment, of having a more balanced life.

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