Skiing in North America over Christmas - Do not want to go to Whistler. How about Fernie or Kirkwood?

It's been years since I last read rec.skiing.alpine, but I guess this
is the place for those tricky questions.

I am planning a skiing trip for Christmas and New Years. We are 5
people. 4 are coming from Europe and 1 from the US, but the person
from the US has the shortest holiday (surprise!), so because of that,
it would make ski in North America.

This is my reasoning so far:

I really like Whistler for the almost-constant snow fall and the
decent fall height, but I hate the lift lines they have these days,
and I can imagine what they are like at Christmas, so Whistler is out
of the question. Besides, Whistler does not seem to have that much
snow at Christmas anyway.

Snowbird and Alta are good resorts, but I guess they do not have much
snow at Christmas either.

Same with Colorado, I presume, and somehow I am not that much of a
Colorado fan after visiting Breckenridge a few years ago.

I have always wanted to ski Jackson Hole, but I remember someone
telling me that Jackson Hole gets its snow really late.

Kirkwood seems to get lots and lots of snow and should be good because
of that, but the fall height is really paltry. I cannot think of a
mountain I have been to with that low fall height?

In addition, I can get a really good deal on a package trip to Fernie,
but does Fernie usually have good snow that early in the season?

I appreciate all ideas and thoughts. Please note that this will be a
group of good skiers that will ski from when the lifts open to when
they close and who care more about good skiing conditions than sun
tans.