Can anybody help me decide where to ski over Christmas?

We're a family from the UK wanting to visit the US over Christmas this year. The kids (9 & 7) have never skied, we've done a couple of days in Europe and loved it. So this Christmas we want to bring the family to the US for 10 days, and spend 5 days in a city, and 5 days ski-ing. We are constrained by flights- frequent flier points mean we need to fly Virgin, which limits us to NY, Boston, San Francisco or LA, and we'd prefer East Coast because of the shorter flight times. We also need a resort that caters for beginners, and that doesn't require us to travel on gondola lifts - my husband has vertigo, and whilst he can cope with chair lifts that are only 20ft or so fom the ground, he will never get into a gondola or a more extreme chair lift.

So does anybody have any ideas or recomendations or opinions on where we should go? Or even if such a trip is feasable? TIA fo any advice.

Well the vertigo thing puts a hitch in the get a long. I woudl have recommended Stratton Mountain in Vermont but they have modern ski lifts. your best bet is to search for a mountain that has not been upgraded since the 1960s or so. lifts in that time were lower. Bromley Mountain in Vermont may do the trick but make sure your husband knows that with lower or older lifts there is far more concern of the lift stopping mid trip. what is better: 80 feet for 5 minutes of 30 feet for hours. I woudl keep Stratton on the list; great shopping, family and beginner friendly, short drive from NY and some great hotels.

This recommendation goes against most of your needs, but your best chance of snow is in Utah. Alta has older chairs (but no safety bars). Bromley and Stratton are both great choices for the East, but we don't have any snow yet. In he East, Stowe in Stowe, VT is your best chance for snow on the ground. They have one mountain that is almost exclusively beginner and intermediate runs and the chairlifts are older and pretty low to the ground.