Alice Keskall shares her tips for the perfect winter date night in

Planning a cosy date night in with Alice Keskall

At this time of year, life is all about making the most of things. Seizing the wintery weather and turning ‘being stuck inside’ into an indoor adventure. So, in partnership with our friends over at Barbour, we’ve teamed up with some of our favourite people, to help you make the most of your downtime this season.

Here home and lifestyle blogger, Alice Gaskell, shares her top tips for creating a cosy date night in.

I’m Alice, and together with my husband Jordan and our son, we live in the beautiful city of Bath. Jordan juggles a full-time accountancy job with ongoing professional exams, and I look after our son whilst working part time from home as a social media content creator. With all this combined, there is very little time for my husband and I to spend quality time together. If and when we do, we try to schedule some proper plans to make sure it is extra special.

Step 1: Share the cooking

I love collecting cookbooks so one of us would typically choose a tasty sounding recipe, and as I often am the one to cook during the week, Jordan would tend to give me the luxury of taking over. He really enjoys experimenting with different foods so he might try something new. We enjoy this time together, chatting in the kitchen and just catching up with our news from the day. Usually, I will find some good music to listen to and prepare some nibbles for us to enjoy.

Step 2: Set the scene

Part of what I love to do is styling, so I will always be the one to arrange a nice romantic setting for us on our dining table. I think taking the time to lay out a pretty table, with plenty of candles for example. makes all the difference from just a normal dinner.

Step 3: Relax over a meal

We’ll then take our time over our meal. I think this is so important, particularly as we aren’t able to go out to a restaurant at the moment, and really relax over a meal making time for conversation. We always finish with a naughty dessert as I don’t think anyone has a sweeter tooth than me.

Step 4: Unwind together

I absolutely love board games and sitting by the fire in our nightwear is definitely one of the most relaxing things to do. After dinner we would start a game and get nice and cosy, probably with a hot chocolate and some cookies I will have made with Jamie that afternoon. (We do a lot of baking, especially since lockdown, so there is always something needing eating).

Step 5: Set-up a movie night

We both really enjoy watching movies so this would be where we would end up. We can often spend a long time choosing something to watch, so inevitably it will be a romantic comedy we will have seen before. We might treat ourselves (again) to some popcorn if we have any room. This is when we would get really comfortable with our dressing gowns on, probably also with a hot water bottle and some sleepy tea before heading up to bed.

Relaxing in Style

We love House of Fraser’s exclusive Barbour nightwear. They’re extremely soft and comfortable, perfect for the time we are spending at home, and warm for the colder winter months. The relaxed style of the pieces compliments our current lifestyle - working mostly from home, looking after our son and dressing practically at home as we do.