Hey there!

The results are in and it’s time to announce the winners of our Hygge Desk competition! But before we do, a big thank you to everyone who applied. We got over 35,000 applications from 216 countries and territories – that’s a lot of people who wanted to experience the magic of hygge!

If you’re confused about all this talk of hygge, some context: back in January we dared to ask – is your desk hygge enough? Check out the video here:

We wanted to share our Scandinavian passion for bringing coziness and comfort into everything we do, especially in the dead of winter. But we went a step further and set up ten hygge desks in the most beautiful cabins across Norway, offering you the chance to browse from one of them for a week.

Despite so many amazing applications, we could, alas, pick only ten lucky hygge enthusiasts. Our winners hailed from Brazil, the United States, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Czechia, and Lithuania, and they all offered convincing reasons as to why they should be chosen – at turns funny, heartrending, and uplifting.

One winner is an artist who describes her desk as an extension of herself. She drew a beautiful short comic illustrating a conversation about the competition between her and her desk. She assured the tearful desk that no, it was not being replaced! The desk understood – she needed to leave home, see the majestic vistas of Norway, come back inspired! But the desk drew the line at her bringing home a beanbag chair.

Another winner submitted a poem (translated from German) that cleverly captured how many of you described feeling at your desks this winter:

My chaotic desk is crying out for hygge.

My desk here – a wild hoard,
Paper, cables, coffee stains there.
The chaos grows, my nerves fade,
Nothing can succeed in this confusion.

Work calls, but you don’t feel like it,
Too much hustle and bustle, too much frustration.
No room for ideas, no room for peace and quiet,
I need hygge – and I need it now!

A warm desk made of light-colored wood,
With candlelight and blanket proud,
A window view of fjord and snow –
Yes, that would be nice, it wouldn’t hurt!

This was such a difficult decision – we all deserve more hygge in our lives! So if you missed out on one of our spectacular hygge desks, we do hope that you’ll try to incorporate some more hygge into lives at home. 

And we have something for that too! We recently released the first browser built around the concept of mindfulness, Opera Air. With minimalist Scandinavian design and the integrated mindfulness exercises Boosts and Take a Break, Opera Air was created to help make you feel better while you browse. So even if you didn’t win a trip to Norway – and even if your desk isn’t the most hygge – you can still enjoy a calming, relaxing browsing experience with Opera.

Stay on the lookout for fun new competitions from Opera! Last year we sent someone to browse from an island off the coast of Iceland, and now ten of you to Norway this time around – so who knows what we’ll do next?

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