Think I may not be on east coast early enough for grey rocks ski school.

Anyone else know of a week long program that is as thought out? Know a lot of people from NYC that went to Copper Mountain but its been discontinued.

Open for anywhere that will have snow Xmas time to Jan9.

Try Taos ski school.

cabo think they will have snow in late December

Sarah,

Pretty much anywhere in the Rockies will have snow at Christmas time. UT and CO are the easiest to travel to and have lots of great beginner runs. The Rocky Mtn Division of the PSSA has the best instructors.

Deer Valley, Alta, Snowbird, Vail, Snowmass, Beaver Creek, Steamboat Springs.

My favorite is Deer Valley in Park city, Utah. You will never have more than 5 people in a group lesson.

Thanks dayle whats the rocky mountain division fo the PSSA? You are talking to a newby. Have any favs that have week long programs?

ncounty: thanks that sounds really nice but do they have week instruction classes that are thought out with a progression in mind or do you just pick your level every day?

Deer Valley and Beaver Creek have excellent ski schools. Taos has a great ski school but not much beginner terrain.

Pretty much anywhere in the Rockies will have snow at Christmas time

Except the time they had none at Deer Valley and my then-boss and his family cancelled their Xmas reservations and went to Hawaii instead

I don't know the answer to that one. You could e-mail them directly at their website.

If you look at the historical records, or if you have been a life long hard core skier, you know that the Rockies have the best track record for snow at Christmas time. Plus, most major resort have extensive snow making capabilites.

No one can control the weather and temperatures too warm for making snow.

UT and CO resorts not being open for Christmas is very rare.

I only have personal experience w/ the ski school at Deer Valley and I can tell you it was great. Of course, I had a handsome instructor for a half-day lesson, but your kids may not care about that! The kids look to be having great fun. They take particular care to divide them up by abilities. The groups are small. Just know that there is no snowboarding at Deer Valley. There are other area mountains that allow snowboarding (Park City, the Canyons, for example), so your kid won't be deprived of going, but if you want a boarding lesson it won't be at DV.

Oops, sorry Sarah. Correction: I said PSSA and it's PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America), the teaching and certification organization for ski and boarding instructors in the US.

Taos has week long ski classes where you ski with the same instructor all week.