Big White Winter Blog

From towing around car seats to packing enough diapers, we know planning a holiday with children requires a lot of, well, extra planning. We know this because we pride ourselves in being a family-friendly resort – in fact, we know this so well, we’ve consistently been voted Canada’s Favourite Family Resort! To make your trip more fun and less frantic, we’ve put together a list of ways to keep the kids entertained while you’re on the slopes, as well as events and activities you can do together as a family and finally, tricks to keep meltdowns (yours and theirs) to a minimum.

The next chef to keep an eye on at Big White is just 12 years old. Kelowna-based Raajin Hoonjan beat out 21 other aspiring young chefs, including his 10-year-old sister Giann, at our Jr. Chef Challenge on December 28, presented by Family Channel and hosted by Happy Valley’s executive chef, Chef Boddie Macklin-Shaw.

Now that the whirlwind of Christmas and New Year’s has swept over us, we’ve had a chance to reflect on what was important to our guests over the past year – according to Instagram, anyway! First and foremost, with little competition at all, is SNOW. Surprise, surprise! All of you cared A LOT about snow in 2018: snow in July, snow ghosts, snowy gondolas, snow, snow, snow! You also liked drone shots, fireworks and Australian men snowboarding in shorts, but our number one photo of the entire year, weighing in at 4,222 likes as of January 3, 2019, was a photo of our old Powder Triple Chair, replaced in December with the new Powder 2.0 Quad Chair! Take a peek at all 18:

The prospect of learning how to ski was daunting to 30-year-old Brazilian-native Raquel Rodrigues. At first, anyway. “I was scared,” she said, but she thought to herself: “I better be fearless and give it a try.”

It's time to start thinking about what you would like to change in the New Year, and while we know it can be hard to make good on those resolutions, luckily Big White is here to help. From losing weight to trying something new to reconnecting with nature, whatever your resolution is, let's resolve it together!

We wrapped 281 empty boxes and cooked 549 kilograms of turkey. We decorated 38 trees with 2.27 kilometres – or 315 strings with 22,050 bulbs – of lights. The 271 songs on our Christmas playlist in the Village Centre Mall each played 5 times, and Santa heard wishes from 1,229 good girls and boys, big and small, from as many as 12 different countries – as well as wishes from 31 4-legged good girls and boys.

Throughout the winter season, Big White is teaming with visitors from around the world. With guests flying in from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, Mexico and so many other far-off locations, we know that adjusting from a long-haul flight can be a drag.

To make your stay at Big White as comfortable and “Canadian” as possible, it’s important to know the ins and outs of tipping etiquette here in the Great White North. (And no, we don’t mean the “don’t eat yellow snow” kind of tips).

Australia's most popular morning show, the TODAY Show on channel 9, was at Big White Ski Resort Tuesday, December 18 as part of a five-resort tour of B.C. The show's weather host, Stevie Jacobs, did six live hits from different locations around the mountain, including Dizzy's, Clocktower Coffee and from inside a hot tub! Jacobs, who felt at home with all of our Australian employees, learned what a "toque" was, took a snowmobile tour, and tried Kettle Valley Steakhouse's famous Tomahawk steak!