Christmas and New Year in Courchevel 2026: Events, Dining and How to Plan

On Christmas Eve in Courchevel, the front de neige at 1850 goes quiet just after dark. Then a ribbon of torchlight appears at the top of the slope and winds its way down: the instructors' torchlit descent, followed by Santa, who arrives by helicopter some years and by snow groomer in others. Fireworks close the evening. It happens every year, it is free, and children talk about it for months.

That is the short answer to what Christmas in Courchevel is like. The longer answer involves dates, dinner tables that vanish by October, and a resort that treats the last week of December as its opening night. Here is how the 2026 festive season shapes up, what is confirmed so far, and how to plan a week that actually works.

The dates that matter for 2026-27

Courchevel opens for the season on Friday 4 December 2026. The full Three Valleys links open the next day, 5 December, and run through to 18 April 2027, so by Christmas week the whole 600 km area is in play, not just the home slopes.

Christmas week 2026 runs from Saturday 19 to Saturday 26 December, with Christmas Day falling on the Friday. New Year week follows straight on, with the fireworks on Thursday 31 December. These two weeks are the most expensive and the most booked of the entire winter. If you only remember one date from this article, make it this one: the best chalets for these weeks are usually gone by the end of September. Our Christmas chalets and New Year chalets pages show what is genuinely still available for 2026.

For the wider calendar, including school holiday overlaps, our ski season dates guide covers the full winter.

What the resort actually does for the festive season

From early December the villages switch on. Decorations and Christmas trees go up through 1850, Moriond, Village, Le Praz and La Tania, along with Christmas markets and a run of street events. The resort tends to mark opening weekend itself with festivities on the snowfront; last season that meant DJ sets, ski tests and a free breakfast on the slopes.

The fixed points of the week are the ones worth planning around. Christmas Eve brings the torchlit descent, Santa's arrival and fireworks. Between Christmas and New Year the resort centre fills with shows, concerts and entertainment, most of it free and family-oriented.

New Year's Eve at 1850 has grown into a proper open-air party on the snowfront. Last season the resort brought in DJs and the La Folie Douce crew, with fireworks over the village at midnight and a separate children's New Year party with its own DJ in the early evening. One honest caveat: the station has not yet published its December 2026 programme, so treat last season's format as a strong indication rather than a promise. The official agenda appears on courchevel.com in the autumn, and we will update this guide when it does.

If you are staying into the new year and can come back later in the winter, note that the International Fireworks Art Festival runs in February and March, with competing pyrotechnic teams firing over the slopes on successive evenings. It is one of the best free spectacles in the Alps and far less crowded than the festive weeks.

Christmas and New Year dinners

This is where planning matters most, because Courchevel's restaurant scene at festive week is both the best in the mountains and the hardest to get into.

The village holds an extraordinary concentration of starred kitchens. Le 1947 at Cheval Blanc, Yannick Alléno's three-star restaurant, seats five tables per service. Le Sarkara at the K2 Palace serves Sébastien Vauxion's dessert-led two-star menu, unlike anything else in the Alps. Le Chabichou by Stéphane Buron and the Alpage at the Annapurna carry stars in 1850, and Le Farçon in La Tania gives you Julien Machet's star with ski-in access and a gentler bill. Our Michelin guide to Courchevel covers the full list, and our honest restaurant guide covers everywhere else worth your evening.

For the nights of 24 and 31 December specifically, expect set gala menus at the hotel restaurants rather than the usual carte, at gala prices. Tables for both nights are typically released and reserved months ahead, often to hotel guests first. Book the moment your accommodation is confirmed. October is realistic, November is hopeful, December is a waiting list.

The alternative that more of our guests choose every year: stay in. A private chef cooking Christmas Eve dinner in your own chalet solves the table problem, the babysitter problem and the midnight walk home in ski boots problem in one move. We cover how it works, and what it costs, in our private chef guide.

Beyond the slopes

A festive week here is not only skiing, and with young children it cannot be. The Forum in the centre of 1850, built for the 1992 Olympics, houses the resort's Olympic ice rink with public sessions through the winter, plus bowling and indoor climbing under the same roof. The floodlit toboggan run from 1850 down to Courchevel Village is roughly two kilometres of genuine, screaming fun and works in the evening after the lifts close.

Aquamotion, between Courchevel Village and Moriond, is the largest mountain water complex in Europe: indoor and outdoor pools, slides, a wave pool and a spa side for the adults. It earns its place on the one bad-weather afternoon most Christmas weeks produce. For the full off-slope list, our winter activities guide covers the lot.

One more for the curious: on one evening a week through the winter, Courchevel Le Praz lights up for the Millet Ski Touring night races, and watching several hundred headlamps climb the mountain with a vin chaud in hand is a better spectacle than it has any right to be.

If you are travelling with small children, childcare during festive week books out earlier than anything else in the resort. Our village by village childcare guide covers nurseries and kindergartens in each village, with ages and prices.

How to plan a festive week that works

Work backwards from the things that cannot flex. The chalet comes first: for Christmas and New Year 2026, serious enquiries should be in by September, which matches what we see in our own bookings every year. Flights and transfers next, remembering that the changeover Saturdays around Christmas are the busiest road days of the winter in the Tarentaise.

Then, in the same week you confirm the chalet: restaurant tables for the 24th and 31st, a private chef if you prefer the chalet route, childcare if you need it, and ski school for the children. Lift passes, ski hire and the ice rink can wait. The gala dinner at Le 1947 cannot.

Last thought. Courchevel at Christmas is expensive, crowded on the snowfront at 5pm, and impossible to book in November. It is also, with torches on the slope and fireworks over the rooftops at 1,850 metres, the single best version of Christmas the Alps produce. The families who come back every year are not wrong.

Season dates and event details were checked in August 2026 against the sources below. The station's official December 2026 programme was not yet published at the time of writing; this guide will be updated when it is.

Sources: les3vallees.com (2026-27 opening dates and season calendar; festive season traditions) · courchevel.com (winter events, Millet Ski Touring, International Fireworks Art Festival, day-care listings) · enjoy-ski.com (New Year's Eve 2025 programme at 1850, cited as last season's format) · courchevel.rentals (Christmas chalets page, Michelin restaurants guide).