A town day, an outside day, and a ski day, with room for whatever happens in between.
Rent a condo or cabin big enough for everyone and give the holiday three days in a mountain town: a morning downtown, an afternoon in the snow, and a family dinner with a lake view at the end. Take it as slow as you like.
DAY 1: TOWN DAY
- Morning: Coffee and a pastry at Stacey Cakes, then walk downtown to see the tree on 2nd Street and the lake from Legacy Park.
- Late morning: Public skate at Manchester Ice and Event Centre. Ice bumper cars run on their own schedule, so check before you go. Thick socks help.
- Midday: Warm up at North Fork Coffee Roasters or Mountain Java, then work through the shopping list downtown. Don’t miss the Christmas window at Krahn’s or the cat at Barn Owl Books.
- Afternoon: Snow tubing at the Activity Barn, just south of town on Moonridge Drive: ride the conveyor up, slide down. It opens once there’s enough snow, and Brundage posts the date.
- Dinner: Pizza night at the rental. Pick up from Growler’s Pizza Grill or Foresters.
DAY 2: OUTSIDE DAY
- Breakfast: FoggLifter Café downtown.
- Pick one:
- Snowmobile with a guide. Brundage Snowmobile Adventures, CM Backcountry Rentals, and Mountain Meadow Adventure Rentals all teach you the machine and handle the route. Mountain Meadow’s scenic tour is made for families and first-timers. Tandem sleds are limited; call ahead.
- Snowshoe to Goose Creek Falls. About two miles out and back with 650 feet of climbing, from the Gordon Titus lot on Goose Lake Road (the road to Brundage).
- Cut your Christmas tree. Pick up a Payette National Forest permit and make a morning of it. Here’s how locals do it.
- Dinner: Broken Horn Brewing on Mission Street, with the River Grill food truck on site. Trivia runs Thursdays at 6.
DAY 3: SKI DAY
- Breakfast: The Den on Payette.
- Downhill: Brundage for glades and wide groomers; Tamarack near Donnelly, where Bliss runs two miles top to bottom; or Little Ski Hill, McCall’s only lighted hill, with a T-bar and night skiing.
- Nordic: Ponderosa State Park on the peninsula, Bear Basin Nordic Center, or Jug Mountain Ranch, where dogs and fat bikes are welcome.
- Dinner: The Cutwater at Shore Lodge, with Payette Lake out the window.
If the snow is late: Day 1 works as written without the tubing. Swap Day 3 for a spa morning at the Spa at Tamarack, a second skate, and a long lunch downtown.
The plan was good. The trip was better.
