What to expect from a ski holiday over Christmas…

Think about the best bits of Christmas. Now think about the best bits of a ski holiday. Well, if you put them together you get something so ecstatically exciting that it should come with a health warning. The best day of them all is Christmas day of course and this is how it goes if you stay in an AliKats ski chalet in Morzine.

1. Get up and look at the lovely white snow all around.
2. Run downstairs to see if Santa has brought you anything nice.
3. Eat a special AliKats Christmas breakfast consisting of the AliKats usuals plus Panetoni french toast topped with berry compote, greek yoghurt & maple syrup.
4. Get taken in the special Christmas minibus * to the ski slopes and go skiing.
5. Smile and laugh a lot.
6. Get picked up from the bar at the bottom of the slopes in said special Christmas minibus and go back to the chalet.
7. Eat mince pies with brandy butter, Christmas cake & ginger bread cookies. But not too much. The main event awaits…
8. Sit in the hot-tub with a glass of vin chaud, gazing at the stunning snowy mountains all around.
9. Congregate in the living room for Champagne and canapes whilst doing some pre-eat stomach stretches and listening to Christmassy music
10. Go through to the dining room when the bell tolls **
11. Eat the following AliKats delights all prepared from scratch by the chef:
    • Soup course: Roasted butternut squash & ginger soup with creme fraiche & toasted pine nuts
    • Fish course: Morzine smoked trout pate on granary toasts with a watercress & mixed seed salad
    • Main course: Roast turkey with all the trimmings including duck fat roast potatoes, parsnip crisps, creamed sprouts, home made sage & onion stuffing, giblet gravy, pigs in blankets, bread sauce and of course a lovely, succulent turkey that lived a happy life on a local farm.
    • Dessert: Christmas pudding with brandy butter & Buche de Noel (chocolate log)
    • Cheese course: Buche de Neige blue cheese and biscuits. And Port of course.
    • Tea & Coffee
12. All of this is accompanied by our special Christmas wine: Insoupconne produced by the very talented Paul Boyer.
13. Sit in front of the fire filling the remaining space with further wine until you can muster enough energy to get to bed.

* The special Christmas minibus consists of our chalet hosts wearing a Santa hat whilst driving. That qualifies as special and Christmas, ok.

** This bell is an Alpine cow bell not John Donne’s death’s bell. Just in case you were worried