Val d'isere over Christmas

Has anyone here stayed in Val D'isere (centre) over Christmas? I'm specifically referring to a one week holiday encompassing Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

For Christmas 2010 we holidayed in Norway and, whilst we enjoyed it, the actual "Christmas" bit was very low key and pretty flat. It didn't necessarily bother me, but my two daughters were not so keen to repeat the experience. They have gone beyond the Father Christmas stage (they will be 13 and 15 by next Christmas) but do still like all of the paraphernalia that goes with the festive period.

Skiing at Christmas makes a lot of sense for us as we run our own business and Christmas is an easy time to be away as everything shuts down (we work in the construction industry). Therefore I'm keen to give it another go..........and it means we get to go skiing again this year!!

Any feedback would be much appreciated. The googling that I've done suggests that there is plenty going on in VDI that time of the year. Any first hand experience?

We stayed in Tignes this Christmas and I have to say it was hard to tell that it was Christmas. We skied over to VDI but didn't spend enough time there to comment, but I got the impression that French ski resorts don't really do Christmas. Maybe its just Tignes though.

To get some "Festive" feeling, take a Chalet holiday. Quite often European resorts celebrate on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day is not a big event. New Year's Eve is normally the big one.

Some resorts do dress up their streets, it does tend to be the traditional places.

I personally have never done a trip over Christmas, but it has always stuck me that the Austrians & Germans seem to do the Christmas thing a lot better than the rest of Europe.

I did do a trip to Germany in early december for the Christmas Markets, and had a great time. The atmosphere was excellent considering it was the beginning of December, better than back in the UK.

Thanks for the replies so far j2ski peeps...

I've just enquired about one particular catered chalet in VDI to be told it's already fully booked for Christmas, New Year and Feb half term 2012/13 :shock:

We did ADH this Xmas and i don't think i would do it again. If the kids like the xmas vibe then i would stay at home as there was nothing doing in france.
Maybe a chalet would be better, we stayed in a hotel, but xmas day was just like any other.

This year we are going to stay home at xmas and ski at new year.

Snapzzz wrote:We did ADH this Xmas and i don't think i would do it again. If the kids like the xmas vibe then i would stay at home as there was nothing doing in france.
Maybe a chalet would be better, we stayed in a hotel, but xmas day was just like any other.

This year we are going to stay home at xmas and ski at new year.

Thanks snapzzz. Not too surprised to get this feedback - I think I expected it.

In any case I've spoken to the kids tonight and they are voting for Xmas at home although happy to go away over New Year which is very gracious of them. More expensive that week though (not that they are bothered!!). Anyone stayed with this company:-?

http://www.skibonjour.com/luxury-chalet-valdisere.cfm

I'd better start saving up.

bedrock barney wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:We did ADH this Xmas and i don't think i would do it again. If the kids like the xmas vibe then i would stay at home as there was nothing doing in france.
Maybe a chalet would be better, we stayed in a hotel, but xmas day was just like any other.

This year we are going to stay home at xmas and ski at new year.

Thanks snapzzz. Not too surprised to get this feedback - I think I expected it.

In any case I've spoken to the kids tonight and they are voting for Xmas at home although happy to go away over New Year which is very gracious of them. More expensive that week though (not that they are bothered!!). Anyone stayed with this company:-?

http://www.skibonjour.com/luxury-chalet-valdisere.cfm

I'd better start saving up.

I know the feeling, it is more expensive and it will more than likely be very busy too. As we left ADH it started to get very busy for new year.
With this in mind we are likely to try and find a quieter resort for this time and go to a bigger one in early feb