Happy saturday afternoon, dear readers!
I have been thinking about whimsy again.
This is probably not surprising if you have been around here for a while. I have a tendency to take a perfectly normal concept, stare at it for long enough, and eventually turn it into some kind of personal theory.
Whimsy has been one of those concepts.
I think we have gotten very used to thinking of whimsy as an aesthetic. You know the look probably by now. Whimsy is sort of a buzz word at this point and I am too have found myself treating it as such too. Little bows, mushrooms, vintage toys, fairy wings, cottage gardens, colorful clothes, old books, tiny teacups, maybe a basket involved somewhere.
And I love all of those things by the way! Nothing wrong with them!!
But I think we should start thinking that whimsy is much bigger than how something looks because that idea can treat whimsy like a product that you can buy. Which is sort of anti-whimsy in of itself?
I don’t think whimsical people necessarily dress whimsically. I don’t think you need a cottagecore bedroom or a collection of antique teacups to be whimsical. I don’t even think you need to be particularly bubbly or cheerful.
I think whimsy is more about how you relate to the world.
And because apparently I cannot leave a thought alone once I have had it, I started thinking about the different ways people experience whimsy and that little spark of oh! This is fun!
So, welcome to my extremely unofficial theory of Whimsy Sources.
What even is whimsy?
For me, whimsy is the ability to find something delightful, interesting, playful, beautiful, strange, or meaningful in the ordinary world.
It could look like deciding that your coffee shop trip is an adventure and recording it in a journal. It could be making pancakes for dinner because you can and pancakes are kind of peak. Throw some whipped cream on it for good measure while you’re at it. Sprinkles for aesthetics. Or could be deciding to watch every single Disney Fairy movie and ranking them.
None of these things are particularly revolutionary. That is kind of the point.
And I think different people arrive at that feeling through different doors.
1. Nature Whimsy
Nature whimsy comes from finding magic in the natural world.
These are the people who stop to look at a weird mushroom. They notice birds and they collect rocks. They like walking through forests, watching storms, growing plants, looking for frogs, or sitting outside without necessarily having a productive reason for doing so.
Nature whimsy is basically the realization that the world is already full of fun weird little things.
You don’t have to decorate your house like an enchanted forest. You can actually just go outside and pay attention.
There is something wonderfully whimsical about realizing that a tiny beetle has been living its entire little beetle life under the same log.
2. Nostalgic Whimsy
Nostalgic whimsy comes from remembering.
Maybe you still love the toys you played with as a kid or you watch old cartoons. Maybe you collect things that remind you of childhood. This kind of whimsy is interested in the past, especially the little things that made life feel magical when you were younger.
In fact, I think there is something really beautiful about growing up while intentionally deciding which parts of childhood you want to carry with you.
You can pay your bills and still love Strawberry Shortcake, I promise. You can become an adult without deciding that everything you loved when you were eight was embarrassing. In fact, eight year old you was onto something.
Maturing is good.
You don’t have to throw away your sense of wonder in the process.
3. Storybook Whimsy
Storybook whimsy comes from seeing life through stories.
These are the people who give meaning to little moments. They journal. They write poetry. They love fairy tales. They imagine the history of an old building. They make traditions. They give names to things.
Storybook whimsy is probably the type I relate to most naturally because I am a writer. I love making up things and adding onto the huge world in my head that I’ve had since I was 11 years old.
4. Creative Whimsy
Creative whimsy comes from making things.
This can be painting, writing, crafting, baking, sewing, decorating, building, photography, music, or any other form of creative expression. And then you make it of course! (this can be a hard step if you’re perfectionist but I encourage you to give it try! It doesn’t have to be perfect! Just make!!)
I think this is one of the most sustainable forms of whimsy because you don’t necessarily need to buy anything.
You can take scraps of paper and make a tiny collage for exmaple. Or paint something that you normally wouldn’t think to paint. You can make something simply because you thought it would be interesting or fun.
There is something very whimsical about being a person who makes things.
5. Curious Whimsy
Curious whimsy is probably the easiest one to accidentally overlook.
It is the joy of finding things out.
These are the people who wander through museums. They love antique stores. They go down Wikipedia rabbit holes. And they ask questions. They want to know what that weird object is, why a building was designed that way, what a particular bird is called, or how something works. They’re very answer oriented. They want to find out more!
Curiosity is inherently whimsical to me because the world is incredibly strange when you actually pay attention to it. There are thousands of things around us that we simply don’t notice because we have gotten used to them.
Curiosity brings back that feeling of “Wait, what is that?”
6. Playful Whimsy
Playful whimsy is about, well, playing.
Games. Costumes. Silly traditions. Themed dinners. Pillow forts. Dancing to Barbie’s Princes and the Pauper Songs. Making up ridiculous challenges with your friends. Turning a normal outing into an adventure.
This kind of whimsy asks a very simple question:
“Why not?”
It’s the realization of free will in a sense.
Why not have a themed dinner? Why not dress up? Or make up a ridiculous tradition that only your friend group understands?
There are so many things adults stop doing simply because they have decided they are too old for them. Playful whimsy says maybe you don’t have to be and you can continue to make things up just because! Because why not??
7. Domestic Whimsy
Domestic whimsy is probably the quietest kind.
It is finding magic in ordinary life at home.
Baking something. Lighting candles all over the house to make it feel special. Decorating for the seasons. Making Sunday morning feel different from Monday morning by drinking out of your “Sunday Mug”. Or something like putting flowers on the table even though nobody is coming over.
Domestic whimsy focuses on realizing that your life does not have to be extraordinary to be meaningful and eventing little routines or habits that help with that.
You can have more than one
People I don’t think people fit neatly into one category. We often get inspiration and creativity and joy for many different places. These are not personality types or anything of that nature (I try to stay away from theories that are personality types. I don’t know enough about people to “categorize” them, plus it’s very hard to do accurately.)
They are more like sources of wonder.
Someone might be heavily nostalgic and creative. Someone else might be nature-oriented and curious. Someone might be deeply domestic but also extremely playful.
You could even have a combination like:
Nature + Curious + Storybook
Someone who likes hiking, learning about plants, and imagining the history of the places they explore.
Or:
Nostalgic + Creative + Playful
Someone who loves childhood media, makes things inspired by it, and enjoys turning ordinary gatherings into themed events.
Or:
Domestic + Storybook + Nature
Someone who loves gardening, seasonal traditions, baking, journaling, and making their home feel like a little story.
Whimsy vs. Escapism
This is probably the part of the theory I care about the most because I think whimsy can sometimes get confused with escapism. I also want to add, I don’t think escapism is inherently bad either but I do feel they are seperate things. Sometimes you need to watch a comfort show after a horrible day or, if you’re like me you need to play a video game for six hours and temporarily stop thinking about your responsibilities. Escapism in these scenarios feels healthy normal and, on certain days, neccessary.
We all need rest.
But Whimsy says:
“I wonder what’s interesting about being here.”
That distinction matters to me.
Whimsy doesn’t necessarily ask you to escape reality. It asks you to look at reality differently.
A walk becomes an adventure or a rainy day becomes an excuse to read. And one of my favorites, your garden becomes a tiny ecosystem worth observing. It is important to note that You aren’t necessarily trying to create a fantasy world because your real one isn’t good enough.
You’re finding the little pieces of magic that were already there.
And I think that can be a much healthier relationship with imagination.
Instead of constantly thinking, “I wish I lived somewhere else,” you start asking, “How can I make the life I have more interesting, meaningful, beautiful, or fun?”
That doesn’t mean you should ignore problems or pretend everything is wonderful.
Sometimes your life genuinely isn’t wonderful.
But I do think there is something powerful about learning to find joy inside reality anyway.
Maybe whimsy is a skill
This is where I have landed with all of this at the end of this thought exercise if you will. I don’t think whimsy is something you either naturally have or don’t have thought someone might naturally be more “imaginative” than other poeple. But I do think it can be cultivated. You can pick up an old hobby. You can create traditions. You can read stories and you can journal. And very importantly, you can let yourself be interested in things without needing them to be productive.
And that is what I mean when I talk about being a whimsical person..
Because adulthood asks us to become responsible, practical, productive people. And those things are good by the way!But I don’t think becoming an adult requires becoming completely disenchanted with the world. Maybe we can have careers and make things just for fun.
We don’t have to choose one thing.
