Enjoy a Ski Town New Year’s Eve this year at one of the many Northern Michigan resorts! This roundup was originally featured in the January 2015 issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine. Read on as we bid 2014 adieu, and 2015 bonjour, at a host of hot New Year’s Eve parties in Up North ski country. Ring in 2015 with delicious celebrations at these
 top resorts.


Boyne Mountain

1 Boyne Mountain Road, Boyne Falls. 231.549.6000

Under the lights, Boyne Mountain’s stark white slopes are cut with bright skiers racing toward the lodge to kick off New Year’s Eve at the resort’s manifold gala of food, music and fireworks. The celebration’s center point is dinner at Stein Eriksen’s, with old school decadence including briny Bluepoint oysters, mini Wellingtons and a caviar spread. Dinner is beef tenderloin with Béarnaise, Maine lobster tails or Chicken Oscar with truffled fingerling potatoes and roasted winter vegetables. Boyne Mountain’s Civic Center will host a raucous New Year Party with state-of-the-art light and sound blasting hot party beats. Families looking to celebrate can hit the expansive dinner buffet, groove at the Family Dance Party, or scream down waterslides and prove video
game virtuosity at an all-inclusive Splashtacular Special in the resort’s Avalanche Bay waterpark.

 

Crystal Mountain

12500 Crystal Mountain Drive, Thompsonville, 231.668.6628

Sit down to an elegant prix fixe feast at the Thistle Pub & Grille, burn some calories on the Buckaroo black diamond run, then get your swerve on at the Vista Lounge with live jams by The Accidentals. A torchlight parade, fireworks and a teen dance party round out the ruckus.

 

The Homestead

1 Woodridge Road, Glen Arbor, 231.334.5000

Find your elegant New Year’s groove at the NYE Gala in Mountain Flowers Lounge. Chow on a classic three-course dinner of golden beet and goat cheese salad, tenderloin with lobster tail and chocolate mousse tuxedo. Strut your sexy cocktail attire to live tunes by The Corvairs, and toast at midnight.

 

Treetops Resort

3962 Wilkinson Road, Gaylord, 866.348.5249

Satisfy your pre-dinner swish on one of 23 runs, then come hungry for sweet potato–encrusted walleye with Bell’s Christmas Ale cream sauce, a magnum porterhouse and, of course, copious bubbly by the glass. There’ll be a raucous dance party interrupted by fireworks at 12 bells.

 

Shanty Creek

5780 Shanty Creek Road, Bellaire, 231.533.8621

NYE at Shanty Creek means free skiing at Summit Mountain from 6:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., fireworks on the mountain and a multitude of parties. The family can groove to dueling pianos in the Grand Ballroom, kids get a full night to themselves in the Bellaire Room, and grown-ups get to party hard at Ivan’s Mountainside Grille with music, food and libation all night long.

 

Boyne Highlands Resort

600 Highland Drive, Harbor Springs, 231.526.3000

Shred some powder, then chow down with your clan on carved meats at a sumptuous buffet in the Olympic Room or dine slopeside from a festive menu in the Main Dining Room. The Remedee will be rocking Zoo Bar till the wee hours. Premium pyrotechnics go off after the torchlight parade. Vino sold at super competitive prices, Toski Sands moves boxes in and out by the truckload. Cabernet fans rejoice!

 

Grand Traverse Resort


100 Grand Traverse Resort Village Boulevard, Williamsburg, 231.534.6000

Swill champagne between bites of slow-roasted pork belly and pumpkin arugula salad at Aerie while you watch 2015 arrive from your perch 16 stories above East Bay. Down in the Governor’s Hall The Spazmatics will be kicking out big hair beats at an 80s-themed New Year’s Eve Bash.


Northern Michigan New Year’s Eve

CherryT Ball Drop in Traverse City

Charlevoix Bridge Drop