Torch Lake's Winter Starts the Day After Thanksgiving This Year

Campsites at Thurston Park in Central Lake are being claimed this fall, but nobody is planning to sleep at them. Each site costs $20 to decorate. You book through the Village Office, and the payoff comes on the night of Dec. 2, when hayrides wind through the campground for Window Night.

That campground is one stop in a sequence that runs around the lake. Between the Friday after Thanksgiving and the first Saturday in December, Schuss Mountain, Alden, Central Lake and Bellaire each start their winter on a different date. They don't overlap, so in a span of nine days you can go to all four. And the first one, the mountain, is opening under ownership it has never had before.

The sequence, in order

1. Friday, Nov. 27: Schuss Mountain at Shanty Creek has a projected opening that day for season-pass holders only.
2. Saturday, Nov. 28: The Visit Alden calendar lists Alden's Christmas Celebration from 3 to 7 p.m. at Alden Village Center downtown.
3. Wednesday, Dec. 2: Window Night hayrides run through the decorated campsites at Thurston Park in Central Lake.
4. Saturday, Dec. 5: Light Up the Night takes over Broad Street in Bellaire.

Four towns go in four days, in order, with a gap between each one. That spacing is what lets one household get to all of them.

November warms up indoors first

This post goes live on Thursday, Nov. 5. The weeks between now and Thanksgiving belong to community rooms and school buildings, and most of the events are free.

The 43rd Annual Holiday Gift Fair fills Bellaire Middle School at 204 W. Forrest Home Ave. this Saturday, Nov. 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and admission is free. The next afternoon, Nov. 8 at 2 p.m., folk musician Ben Traverse gives a free program called "Songs of the American Rail" at the Helena Township Community Center, 8751 Helena Road in Alden, according to the Antrim Review.

The Alden District Library is in that same community center. The Antrim Review lists a free pewter-figurine exhibit there from Nov. 2 through Nov. 28, open during regular library hours. On Saturdays the library closes at 2 p.m. That last Saturday is also the day of Alden's Christmas Celebration, so you can see the exhibit before 2 p.m. and then head downtown when the celebration starts at 3.

The TAAG Arts & Crafts Event comes the weekend before Thanksgiving. Helena Township lists it for Nov. 19 through 21. The Visit Alden calendar lists only Saturday, Nov. 21, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Helena Township Center, so check with the township before you plan around the Thursday or Friday.

Then Thanksgiving passes, and the outdoor events begin the next morning.

The mountain goes first, under new owners

Schuss Mountain's projected Nov. 27 opening will be its first ski day under Shanty Creek Ski and Golf Resort, LLC. The company took over the resort from Trinidad Resort & Club, LLC, effective Feb. 26, 2026, ending more than 20 years of the previous ownership. 9&10 News reported that Harper Sibley, executive vice president of the new venture, described the buyers this way: "The new owners are a Michigan-based investment group, who are looking forward to working with staff, guests and the community to further enhance the beauty and the 60-year traditions of Shanty Creek." The same report said the plan includes hotel updates, a new website and more family activities, and that the existing team would stay in place.

One change is already confirmed for opening day. Shanty Creek says every lift will have loading and unloading ramps surfaced with mSnow, a bristle material made from recycled plastics, including Michigan road construction barrels. The ramps need far less snow to get the lifts running, which frees up more of what the mountain makes for the trails. The resort has also said the new owners are making "one of the largest investments in the mountain's history," and that it will feature each improvement on its social channels in the weeks before the season.

Shanty Creek labels all of its opening dates as projected. The Nov. 27 date is for season-pass holders only. Everyone else's projected start for daily skiing is Thursday, Dec. 17.

Alden, Central Lake, then Bellaire

Alden's Saturday is aimed at families. Along with the Christmas Celebration at Alden Village Center, the Visit Alden calendar lists kids' crafts and cookie decorating at Alden Methodist Church from 3 to 5 p.m. Those listed hours and the full program are worth confirming with the village closer to the date.

The hayrides in Central Lake on Dec. 2 depend on your neighbors decorating the campsites. The village is asking people to adopt sites for $20 each, booked through the Village Office. It is the only one of the four events that falls on a weeknight. It is also the only one where people who live here build the scenery themselves.

Bellaire comes last and has the fullest program. The Bellaire Chamber's Light Up the Night page lists Santa visits, a soup cook-off, a 6 p.m. parade and a 6:45 p.m. tree lighting downtown on Saturday, Dec. 5. The chamber calls that schedule tentative. Its event listing gives the location as Broad Street. If you went to the gift fair four weeks earlier, this is the same town's second holiday Saturday.

After Dec. 5, Shanty Creek carries the calendar

Once Bellaire lights its tree, the villages have no more events on the calendar. Everything left before spring is posted by the resort, and the dates run as follows:

The New Year's Eve dinner costs $65 for adults 13 and older and $39 for children ages 6 to 12. Children 5 and under eat free with a paid adult buffet.

From January on, the weekday deals cost less than a regular lift ticket, and all three are sold in person only. Manic Mondays run from Jan. 4 to March 8, with $46 lift tickets and $46 rentals. Two-for-Tuesdays run from Jan. 5 to March 9, at $95 for two lift tickets. KHQ Ski Night runs Wednesdays from Jan. 6 to March 10, with $24 lift tickets and $24 rentals from 5 to 9 p.m. On Denim Days, March 20, anyone wearing denim gets a $10 lift ticket. At the Slush Cup, skiers try to cross a pond, and Jedi Mind Trip plays live.

If you plan to ski more than a handful of days, check the season pass. Shanty Creek's 2026/27 in-season SuperPass costs $565 for adults 18 to 61 and $505 for seniors 62 to 69. Skiers 70 and older and children 8 and under pay $40. A Cross Country Only pass for ages 9 to 69 costs $116. Every SuperPass covers unlimited skiing at Schuss Mountain, which has 42 trails, and use of the resort's 9.5K of groomed Nordic trails when they are open.

The winter trails outside the resort are groomed with help from the Northern Michigan Mountain Bike Association, which offers a 26-27 Grooming Badge to support that work. Its trail page lists about 7.5 miles of groomed fat-bike trail at Glacial Hills, 3.25 miles of cross-country ski trail on North Orchard Hill and 2.5 miles of groomed foot trail from the Vandermark Lot.

One shop closes its doors for the season soon after. Alden Mill House is open seven days a week now, then closes its physical store from Jan. 1 to May 1, with online orders still available. If it's on your holiday shopping list, December is the last month to shop there in person.

If you'd like to use your place on Torch Lake more in these months, whether that's a year-round home near Bellaire's Broad Street or a cottage you open for Christmas, Angela DiLorenzo at Michigan LifeStyle Homes knows the lake in every season and is glad to talk it through. Request a Private Consultation.