Screen time at Christmas has become a shared frustration in Denmark: a new Megafon survey for TV 2 finds that many Danes want screens to take up less space during the holidays, even as family routines and digital habits make “switching off” difficult.
A holiday wish that clashes with habits
In the TV 2/Megafon poll, 47% of respondents said they were fully or mostly in agreement that they would like screens to fill less of Christmas. The survey (1,031 respondents) uses “screen time” broadly, covering phones, computers, tablets and TV.
The timing matters. Christmas in Denmark is typically built around meals, visits, and long indoor evenings. When the weather is cold and dark, staying in with a screen can feel like the easiest default—yet it is also when many people say they want more analog presence and fewer interruptions.
Why it is harder during time off
Andreas Maaløe Jespersen, a consumer-behaviour expert at the Danish Consumer Agency (Forbrugerstyrelsen), told TV 2 that the holiday break removes many of the “natural limits” that exist on school and work days. In other words, people do not only face temptation; they lose the external structure that normally forces breaks.
That gap is important because many digital services are designed to hold attention—through endless feeds, autoplay, and constant notifications. The result is a mismatch between intentions (“I will check this quickly”) and outcomes (“I have been scrolling for 40 minutes”).
From willpower to family rules
The TV 2 story makes a simple point: relying on willpower alone is often a losing strategy.
The expert advice is therefore collective rather than individual. If one person wants to reduce screen time while everyone else keeps using their phones, the environment itself becomes a trigger. A shared plan—especially during gatherings—can change the social norm.
Practical steps that behavioural researchers often recommend are also straightforward:
- Make screens less convenient: keep phones in another room or in a drawer during meals and games.
- Reduce cues: mute or limit notifications, and remove the most “sticky” apps from the home screen.
- Set shared moments: agree on specific screen-free blocks (for example during dinner, gift opening, or the first hour after guests arrive).
These suggestions mirror the Danish Health Authority’s guidance on screen use in leisure time, which encourages adults to keep recreational screen time under three hours per day and to prioritise sleep, physical activity and offline socialising.
How Denmark compares with the other Nordic countries
Denmark is not alone. Across the Nordic region, smartphone access and daily digital use are close to universal, making the question less about “whether” people are online and more about how that online time is structured.
- In Norway, Statistics Norway reports that people spend 4 hours and 35 minutes online per day on average, and that 16–19-year-olds spend 7.5 hours. The same survey finds daily social media use is widespread, with time spent on social platforms averaging 1 hour and 53 minutes.
- In Sweden, Nordicom’s 2024 Media Barometer shows that social networking services reach 84% of the population on an average day. It also breaks down time spent: 16% spend more than two hours on social media daily, while another 16% spend one to two hours.
- In Finland, Statistics Finland’s time-use research (2020–2021) estimates a “total screen time” of 4 hours and 26 minutes per day for the population aged 10+, while “active” screen time is 3 hours and 23 minutes. TV accounts for the largest share of active screen time.
Seen together, these figures suggest why a Danish Christmas “digital detox” can feel like an uphill fight: in a region where everyday life is already heavily mediated by screens, holidays do not remove the habit—they often intensify it.
A small Christmas test for a bigger debate
Denmark has recently been part of wider Nordic and European discussions about children’s wellbeing, attention, and platform design. But the TV 2 survey points to something broader: screen time is also an adult issue, tied to work messages, social expectations, and entertainment that follows people into the living room.
This Christmas, many Danish families may find that the most realistic goal is not a strict ban, but clearer boundaries: deciding when screens are welcome—watching a Christmas film together—and when they are not, such as during meals or shared games.
If that kind of household agreement spreads, it may shape the next phase of the Nordic debate on digital wellbeing: less moral panic, more practical governance of attention in everyday life, starting at home.
