It’s a new year, but we’ve still got the same old Dutch tropes.

New year, new you. That’s the saying, right? Unless you’re a foreign media outlet writing about the Netherlands. Then it’s the same old tropes, writes our regular columnist Molly Quell.

Not two days into 2024 and we already had the first gezelligheid story of the year. Axios, the American news website founded by a group of Politico journalists, ran a story called Gezellig: How to be cozy like the Dutch.

The piece defines gezellig as “a word that describes feeling cozy, usually with friends or loved ones.” The Dutch love to claim gezellig is untranslatable but in reality, English just affords itself multiple words – cosy, homey, cheerful – to cover the singular option offered in the Netherlands.

We have had gezellig discourse before. Nearly 20 years ago, Slate ran a story about the quest for gezelligheid. That piece opens with the sentence: “The overriding vibe in Amsterdam is coziness.”

The author must have never set a toe on an Amsterdam bike lane if that’s the vibe he thinks the city has.

In 2015, the similar Danish word hygge had its moment, which kicked up another round of gezellig discourse. In 2017, Dutch News ran the definitive guide on being gezellig and we considered the matter closed.

But those plucky foreigners just can’t help themselves on a slow news day.