Leelanau Peninsula
Your family and friends are worth celebrating, and doing so first-class means fine accommodations. Steer the family sled to Hilltop Log Lodge, with 8,000 square feet of exquisite rustic charm. We’re talkin’ both sunrise and sunset views, heated wood flooring, massive log timber trusses, game room, gourmet kitchen and 217 feet of West Grand Traverse Bay frontage. Sleeps 14 in luxurious comfort (from $5,800 weekly, 231.920.7067, hilltoploglodge.com). Snowshoe to neighboring wineries, including Ciccone Vinyards, Willow Vineyards and Chateau de Leelanau Winery. Invite chefs from the Riverside Inn, a historic restaurant in nearby Leland, to cater a regional feast for your lodge festivities (800.257.0102, theriverside-inn.com).
Harbor Springs
If you’re a fan of gorgeous packages, you’ll swoon for spending your holiday at a well-appointed log lodge in Harbor Springs. Find 4,500 square feet of luxe rustic for up to 15 of your nearest and dearest, with warmth emanating from seriously grand design. Watch Boyne Highlands’ fireworks from the backyard fire pit, or cross-country ski to the resort’s ski runs from the lodge’s own pathways (from $3,000 weekly, homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p373270). Before you go, stop in to Pond Hill Farm for all the ingredients you’ll need for the bean soup recipe at right, including their own farm ham (231.526.FARM, pondhill.com).
Check out this recipe for Garbanzo Bean Soup with Kale and Smoked Ham, created by Pond Hill Farm Garden Cafe chef Scott Schornak.
Interlochen
Does it take immersion in 5.5 acres of bird-packed woodlands to get your kids to quit texting? Might as well do it in style, on the western shore of Duck Lake in Interlochen. Ring in the season surrounded by locally cut paneling—cedar, aspen and pine—throughout the home (from $1,800 weekly, 312.543.1004, interlochenhouse.com). The granite kitchen is the perfect place to unwrap golden gifts (a k a pasties) from Earth & Hearth Deli (231.276.9105, earthnhearth.com). Holiday live ballet performance versus video gaming? Your kids will dig the classic Nutcracker at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, just 1.5 miles from the cottage door (Dec. 8–10, from $9, 800.681.5920, interlochen.org).