Vienna is a great place to spend Christmas , especially true arriving before that date and visiting the numerous Christmas Markets After Vienna - Cesky Krumlov in winter - not the greatest -
no one knows your likes regarding travel better than you -

perhaps looking at transport options from Vienna during this time may assisit a little .
Discount carriers like Fly Niki offer great one way fares - places like Paris too.

www.flyniki.com

Alpine resorts become very busy after Christmas and very costly.

School and often business closed during this period and up to January 6th.

many alpine hotels will not accomodate short term stayers - wanting one week or more to mazimize possible profit.
Perhaps a smaller lesser known resort will but then a lesser experience possible.

Prague is an easy train ride from Vienna - booked inadvance cheap too-
check spsrschienr rates.

Thankyou for the suggestions/comments provided. It's been very helpful!

See what can be done in Budapest

bilbo - can you further elaborate on Budapest please?

well its relatively close, it has the opera, the spas (i prefer eger or misckolc more to the east but it is winter and they will be a bit uncomfortable), the town is well designed for the cold (like vienna) and the food is what is called claggy in yorkshire (it sticks to the ribs) The Tokaji wine is a reasonable price, the cakes are as good as in vienna and I like the underground (small and warm), its a nice counterpoint to Vienna (see austro-hungarian empire) and has posh shops

Thanks bilboburgler. Budapest is now part of the itinerary!

I think the best restaurants are south of the Opera and would recommend hotels in this area.

Since you are arriving in Frankfurt and you have plenty of time, make sure that you spend 1-2 days in one of the most amazing small cities of Germany, a must see especially during Xmas, Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It's located outside Nuremberg, between Frankfurt and Munich. I am sure this will be an unforgettable experience for you!!!!!
I was there last summer, and will visit again during christmas again!!!

Why not do open jaw ticket and come home from Paris instead of back tracking to Frankfurt? Rothenburg is more than outside of Nuremberg. It is a good two hours and a bit more west of Nuremberg. From a timing perspective, the Christmas markets in German close on Christmas eve. Over Christmas this year we did a Strassbourg to Prague. It was great.

bookmarking

Thanks for the suggestions fmpden and clausar! Unfortunately we didn't have flexibility with flights as we're using frequent flyer points so we have to fly into and out of Frankfurt. We're still playing around with our itinerary and your suggestions will be factored in. I can't wait!! Rothenburg sounds wonderful!!

We use United FF points and have no problems with open jaw ticket. You may have to ask or use a live person. Our last trip was into Amsterdam and home from Rome.

A lot of the charm of Budapest is walking. But the nice thing is that the sights are mostly pretty close, centered around the Chain Bridge, with Buda Hill right there on one side and Vaci Utca and Andrassy out to Varosliget (City Park - there's an ice rink there). So it's easy to walk, see a church or museum while warming up, walk some more.

The oldest part of the subway system runs under Andrassy and is worth checking out on it's own. Super cheap to ride.
Or compare the trams to the ones here in Melbourne. They're a lot cheaper than ours too. Good trip!

If you are looking forward to the Christmas markets Munich, Salzburg and Vienna will have a lot to offer. However, those Christmas markets close down on December 24th and frankly the scene gets pretty quiet for Christmas and a few days after. The Prague Christmas market stays open till New Years and it just adds to all the other interesting and fun stuff in Prague.

I agree that flying open jaw will make a lot more sense where you fly home from Paris rather that backtracking to Frankfurt.

I suggest Prague, it's such a beautiful city especially at Christmas time. The people are friendly and welcoming and the food is perfect for cold winter days. My husband and I have been twice for the Christmas markets and we are going back this year. We also love Munich! Hope you and daughter have a wonderful time!

If you definitely want a white Christmas you will need to head to the Alps. Granted, Vienna, Prague and budapest are on the central european plain - and will get real winter weather. but there is no guarantee of snow on any particular dates - unless you head up into the mountains.

Congratulations on adding Budapest to your itinerary. It is quite a bit grittier than Vienna but you will be struck by the similarities of the 2 cities, both of wh grew hugely in the post-1849 period.

The differences are even more striking. Budapest has a far more dramatic setting and has more "show-off" buildings, such as the eye-popping Parliament and the Applied Arts Museum.

My recollection (though this may not be true at Xmas) is that there are great discounts available during the winter period. Certainly anytime after Jan.1 you should get great discounts.

Overall, Budapest was a great bargain, when I visited there a couple of time 5 or 6 years ago.

I like the Starlight Suites chain, wh has properties in both Vienna and Budapest. These are efficiency apts but bkfast is also offered on site.