For lots of families, Christmas is a time to travel.  Several properties across America are legendary for their celebrations of the holiday season. In New York City, there’s the Plaza; New Orleans is home to The Roosevelt and Chicago is home to the Waldorf Astoria. These resorts are just a few of the best Christmas hotels for a multi-generational family holiday visit. Read on for more.

Christmas time in the Vail Village is a charming experience. Photo Credit: Four Seasons Vail

How to Choose  Christmas Hotels

This has been a very long year for my family and honestly, we’re looking to do something very different by actually traveling on Christmas Day. It’s a great way to create a new tradition, or at least something new this year. There are certain criteria that we need to have for our resort:

• A variety of activities – We want to make sure there’s something for everyone to do, from the most active to the most relaxed members of our family. My tween son is all about adventure and outdoors. My mother is looking forward to sitting by the fire.
• A central shared experience – As much as we like splitting up, we want to create a holiday memory with one central experience. We haven’t decided if that’s driving to look at Christmas lights, a gingerbread house decorating experience or group caroling. We just know that it needs to be together.
• A Christmas WOW moment – Traveling for Christmas is new for my family so we need to be wowed by Christmas hotels. Over the top holiday decor, Elf on the Shelf, Santa Claus, we want it all!

Read More: 4 Tips for Traveling with Elf on the Shelf

A Luxury White Christmas at Four Seasons Vail

For the family that loves snow, there’s no better place to experience a winter wonderland than in the Rockies at the Four Seasons Resorts and Residences Vail in Colorado. The Christmas hotel celebrations begin in early December with a proclamation to honor the home of the Grinch, “WhoVail” and the unveiling of a 100-square-foot gingerbread house.

Outdoors, ice skating and hot cocoa are sure to warm you if you don’t hit the slopes.  The whole family can meet up poolside for complimentary hot chocolate and s’mores.  And The Elf on the Shelf will make special appearances in the week leading up to Christmas with visits from Santa Claus and live music courtesy of the Dickens Carolers on Christmas Eve.

Four Seasons works for families of varying sizes because you can choose accommodations ranging from standard hotel rooms through four bedroom resort residences. Guests in the Residences can even order Christmas Trees to be sent to their rooms along with a special Christmas dinner in or dining at the Christmas Day buffets.  Throughout the season, the Four Seasons offers a complimentary childcare program, Kids for All Seasons, for ages 5 to 12. Put the kids there while you take a cooking/beverage class or spend time at the Five Star Spa.

White (Sand) Christmas at The Breakers Palm Beach

If the snow isn’t your ideal white Christmas, then you may want to consider visiting The Breakers Palm Beach for white sand. As one of the CNN’s “Top 10 Hotels that Go All Out for Christmas” three years in a row, this beachfront resort is ready to welcome guests for the Christmas season with an impressive winter dreamscape. As soon as guests enter the Main Drive, they’re greeted with glowing white lights on the 100 royal palms leading to the hotel. The magic continues with 18 feet Christmas trees in the lobby and more than 170,000 lights and 12,000 feet of ribbon across the property.

While The Breakers begins its Christmas activities after Thanksgiving, the decorations are left up until the 12th day of Christmas, January 6. This is ideal for extended families are celebrating a late Christmas; they’ll still be able to enjoy the Christmas spirit. For interfaith families, there is a sculptural menorah on display in the lobby and Jewish services that will held onsite. Every member of the family will be able to find both holiday and year round activities they’ll love. During the Christmas season, there are special treats like formal holiday teas along with the four pools and private beach. Their large suites are offer families plenty of room to spread out and enjoy the holidays.

An ICE! Christmas at the Gaylord Hotels

Christmas is a frozen paradise at each of the five Gaylord Hotel properties through their award-winning ICE! attraction. Visitors to ICE don a blue parka to walk through a frozen wonderland filled with ice slides, hand-carved ice sculptures and live carving zones, all at 9 degrees.

My family spent a weekend at the Gaylord National to help us get into the holiday spirit and we loved it. The nightly light show, evening story time and teddy bears from the onsite Build-A-Bear helped us create incredibly special memories. The wonderful thing about Christmas at any of the Gaylord properties is there are plenty of activities. From gingerbread houses to ice-skating and Christmas Day buffets, there is plenty for families to enjoy before Santa makes his way back to the North Pole.

ICE! comes alive through a distinct theme at each. Gaylord Opryland (Nashville, TN) will feature the popular A Christmas Story. The Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas, will present A Charlie Brown Christmas in its ICE! experience.  The Polar Express will be main attraction at the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, Florida, while the Gaylord National right outside of Washington, D.C will showcase Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And the Gaylord Rockies in Denver, CO will bring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to life.

Read More: How to Make a Hotel Room Feel Right for Christmas

Christmas in California at the Fairmont Hotel San Francisco

Christmas at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco is not only first among California holiday legends; it’s legendary among Christmas hotel destinations. Fairmont San Francisco transforms the hotel’s grand lobby into Christmas central with a life size gingerbread house. This house is more 25 feet tall and 35 feet wide! For a super fun special treat, children can stay in the Santa Suite. The Santa Suite is the specially decorated “home” of Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Fairmont when they’re in California.   To round out the experience, you can choose from the Gingerbread Holiday afternoon tea or a special private dining inside the Gingerbread House.

Christmas in the Mountains at the Omni Grove Park Inn

I have wanted to visit the Omni Grove Park Inn in Ashville, NC for years because of the magical gingerbread house displays. Annually, the hotel hosts Christmas in the Mountains for families to come and celebrate. The Grove Park Inn is home to the Annual National Gingerbread House Competition, and they certainly bring the WOW as a Christmas hotel.

Over the Christmas weekend, the Inn will host several different activities including family movie screenings, live music and a Yule Log Ceremony to welcome Santa on Christmas Eve.

Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa for a Texas Christmas

Another warm weather holiday destination is Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa, east of Austin. Here, you can celebrate Christmas like a Texan, by swimming in the lazy river! The outdoor water park is open in December, even as the resort trees are sprinkled with oversized decorations and twinkling lights. You won’t see snow at this Holiday Light Stroll, but you will find made-to-order mini doughnuts, which might be better. Lost Pines offers traditional holiday entertainment—from stories with Mrs. Claus to gingerbread house workshops—plus activities with a Texas twist. Santa greets guests from atop a Texas Longhorn and the resort’s resident pig, pygmy goats, and alpacas parade around in their holiday best. Kids can enjoy cookie decorating and ornament making, when they’re not outside riding bikes, playing games, and making new friends. At this resort on the banks of the Colorado River, kids and teens get off their screens and fill their days with good, old-fashioned family fun. That sounds like a perfect Christmas vacation to me.

The Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs

The Broadmoor Hotel is a favorite of several TravelingMoms but it becomes extra special at Christmas time. Each year, the hotel hosts “The Broadmoor Holiday Show.” This live music show featuring Debby Boone includes dinner and a “White Christmas”-style show straight out of the movies. Unique holiday events include a life size gingerbread house, warm wassail and a hike to the Frozen Falls. Don’t miss the special culinary twist on the 12 Days of Christmas.

If you win a lottery, seriously consider the Broadmoor’s Christmas at Cloud Camp, which starts at $50,000 for 3 or 4 day packages. Cloud Camp is an all-inclusive seven-bedroom private retreat for a family or group of friends. The staff at Cloud Camp will create a week catered to your family. Options for activities include wine tasting, cookie making for Santa, and hiking through the Rockies. Cloud Camp can be as active or relaxed as you choose. However, one can’t miss experience is sitting around the fire pit watching the twinkling white lights of the stars and making s’mores.

The remote location makes for an amazing display of the stars because of the elevation. Because the experience is privately curated for your family, you can bring your own holiday décor and traditions along. If that means elf tuck-ins and bedtime stories or your holiday decorations and special Santa plate that’s been passed down, the staff at Cloud Camp is prepared with their own Christmas magic to make it all happen.  You can even have a horse-drawn carriage ride.

How to Celebrate Christmas Away from Home

With all the places to go, there’s always a concern about how to actually celebrate with presents. Do you ship them in advance or take in a suitcase and hope TSA doesn’t open them? How far in advance do you go? Is Christmas Eve too late and you might end up with a delayed flight or bad weather? Do you stay for New Years?

The best advice I can give is plan in advance (like now) and look at every situation. I have fond memories of my grandmother flying in to see us Christmas morning. She would do Christmas morning in Minnesota with my cousins and then the afternoon in California with our family. It felt like a special delivery.

However you choose or wherever you go, let me be the first to tell you Merry Christmas! (I know it’s early but I’m in the spirit!)