Will be going to Vegas with 11 year old child a few days before X-mas and a few days after. Have reservations at the following Luxor, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Mirage and Las Vegas Hilton (will definitely be staying at the Hilton X-mas eve and X-mas day due to the higher rates at the other hotels). How would you rate the above hotels? Except for X-mas eve and X-mas day, the rates are comparable, about a $30 difference per day.
How far is the walk from the Hilton to the strip? Which part of the strip is it near?

What a thoughtful parent you are! Taking a child to Las Vegas for Christmas. LV must be every child's dream.

It is possible that you have the reservations to cover your bases and are trying to eliminate some but: I will answer under the assumption that you plan on actually staying at those Hotels...all in one trip (which I think is a bad idea).

The first 3 that you you mention are on the far South end of the strip, MGM not as much so. Mirage is mostly refered to as mid strip and the Hilton is toward the North end but off the strip several blocks. Kind of a lousy walk.

IMHO, none of the properties that you mention are especially kid friendly, although I am not as familiar with the Hilton. MGM is gigantic and something of a party place. MB is a place where young hotshots go after the Hard Rock. Luxor is kind of middle of the road and Mirage is upper class, some may say snooty.

Knowing a bit more about your situation may help. You don't really ask for things to do advice so I will hold off on that unless you reply.

It will probably be too cold to swim...but just in case there's a warm spell you should know that MGM is probably the only one where the pools will be open at that time.

Las Vegas Hilton is a short walk to the north strip hotels, but not walkable to most of the strip...and the monorail is still not back up and running.

When you say "rate", can you be more specific?

Are you trying to figure out which is more kid-friendly, which has the best location, which has the nicest rooms, etc.?

IMO, of all the hotels you listed, the Luxor will be the most kid-friendly. This is because they have an attractions level which is on a different floor than the casino. The attractions level has a motion simulator ride, a big arcade, and an IMAX theater. With the way the hotel is designed, it is actually possible to get to some areas without walking through much of the casino.

Hmmmm. I'll disagree with many of the comments above, especially the stereotypes and location comments.

I suspect you're planning to cancel all but one or two of your reservations, correct?

As far as overall quality, Mandalay is easily the best of the hotels you list. Best restaurants, best public areas, best pool complex (which won't matter in December) and best/largest standard rooms.
Mirage is next in overall quality. It's the second oldest of the 5, but has nice public areas, recently renovated rooms (which are still a little smaller than most of the newer hotels), a couple very good restaurants, nice pool area.
MGM is next. Easily the biggest. Room quality better than average for LV. Lots of food/shopping options. Plenty to offer for kids.
Luxor is 4th of the five for overall quality. Most unique/memorable design, decent but not special rooms. Average amenities.
The LV Hilton is an ancient place. Rooms are Holiday Inn quality. The location is by far the worst. Most of the cocktail waitresses have waited on Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin personally. And that's not a good thing. It's cheap *for a reason*. I think it would be a depressing place to stay at Christmas.

The Hilton (if you measure from the lobby) is about 2/3 mile walk to the Strip, and that is the worst part of the Strip. To walk to the more desirable part of the Strip (near the middle, Fashion Show Mall and south) is over 1.5 miles.

The Mirage is snooty? In its early days it attracted the high roller crowd. Not these days. The clienetele has changed significantly since newer. nicer hotels opened up and stole a lot of the high end business. Mirage is still a nice place. But it's faded quite a bit since the late 1990's.

Luxor is far south strip but not MGM? The 2 are only 400 meters apart.

For the dates you're looking at, you might also consider Treasure Island and Paris. They're well located, not as nice as Mandalay Bay but a lot better than the Hilton and somewhat better than Luxor. Being in the center of the Strip is really nice if you'll be in LV several days.

Went to Vegas with 11 yr dtr and she and her 12 yr old friend loved MGM Grand. Unless it's changed from several yrs ago, it was definitely "kid-friendly"--big game room, fast food in the food court, great pool.

Mandalay Bay is the swankiest (and most inconveniently located). The Mirage has lovely rooms and is in the center of the action that will interest and please you.