Day 0 is two bookings, not one.
Toddler creche and ski school are the scarce Christmas objects we can name. Book the named care slot in the same sitting as the beds, then lessons, then the pass, then the transfer seats. No invented sell-out rate.
The short answer
Birthday
Write the date, not "almost 3." Name creche, jardin, or group school.
Day 0
Beds and the named care slot in the same sitting. Do not wait until tomorrow.
Lessons
Ski school is a different product. Book the named school if the child is in that band.
Pass
Not the scarce object we hold. Buy it after the care slot is real.
Seats
Read the transfer page. A Geneva shared coach may refuse under 4.
The freeze is not which mountain. It is who holds the under-3 while you ski. Named operators print limited places and "book before you arrive." We do not hold a sell-out rate, so we will not print one. Day 0 is the chalet and the named care product in the same sitting. Then lessons. Then the pass. Then the transfer that actually has a child seat.
Creche and halte-garderie hold the under-3. Ski kindergarten / Piou-Piou / jardin is usually from 3. Group ski school is a third product. If you book "kindergarten" for a 2-year-old, you have not booked care. The decoder for those three words already lives on ski-school-vs-kindergarten-vs-childcare.
This is the sitting. Open the operator page in the local language. If a visitor creche prints your age, book that slot before you congratulate yourselves on the apartment. We do not hold a Christmas sell-out number. What we hold is "places limited" and "book before you arrive" on named pages.
If the child is in the ski-school band, book that school next. Of 141 starting ages we already hold, 86 start at 3. That is a library, not a law. Confirm the named school. A Saturday arrival can still miss Sunday morning if the school wants a Saturday desk check-in.
In the files we hold, the pass is not the scarce Christmas object. Buy the ticket that matches the mountain you can actually reach, after the care slot is real. We will not invent a holiday lift sell-out.
This is the Saturday trap nobody budgets. A private van and a shared coach are different products. Read the operator page for that airport. Request the seat if the operator offers one. Bring the booster if they tell you they do not provide it. Do not assume the cheap Geneva coach will take a toddler.
Visitor creche from 6 months. Village des Enfants from 3. About 20 places.
Advance reservations are indispensable; requests in arrival order. Half-days only for 6 to 15 months. ESF heading says through completed 2 years; the same FR table and the OT fiche say through 3. Confirm the cart. The village is car-free. That helps the pushchair. It does not invent extra cots.
OT winter prose: 12 to 36 months. Inscriptions in advance, places limited.
The same OT fiche also prints a structured minimum of 1.5 years. Summer prose is 18 to 36 months. We are not flattening that to one number. Operator winter page stays 12 to 36 months. New booking accounts; winter inscriptions open autumn 2026. Mid-stay only if a place remains. We do not hold "Christmas week sells first" as a measurement.
Mini club from 3 years 3 months, in school, toilet-trained. Not an under-3 creche.
Book before you arrive; places limited; online until 7 days before. Saturday 14:00 to 18:00 at Les Lauzieres is required if the child starts Sunday morning. A Sunday walk-up misses the full course. Health form at least 15 days ahead. This is the lesson product, not the baby cot.
Visitor garderie from 6 months. Municipal Les Sourires is residents-priority.
OT: reserve the garderie even outside school holidays. That is the strongest "do not wait" line we hold. OT and ESF price tables disagree. We are not printing a euro.
Service-Public (verified 3 Oct 2025) and Code de la route R412-2: under 10 needs an approved restraint, normally in the back. Taxi and public-transport vehicles are exempt. A private hire van is not that exemption. Do not skip the seat because a shared coach might be "transport en commun." Read the operator page for that booking.
oesterreich.gv.at, updated 12 Jan 2026, KFG section 106: the driver is responsible. Under 14 and under 135 cm needs a suitable child restraint. Under 14 and 135 cm or taller uses the seatbelt; a restraint is still recommended under 150 cm. Coaches (M2/M3) are a different product in the statute. Confirm the seat on the booking.
ASTRA: under 12 and under 150 cm (what comes first) needs a suitable restraint in a car. The official Merkblatt allows children from 4 to use the existing belts in a Gesellschaftswagen (coach). Do not flatten the car rule onto a Saturday coach, or the coach rule onto a hired car.
One private operator (Alpinbus) says baby, child, and booster seats are free if you request them at booking, and names Christmas as a busy week. One shared-coach operator (Ben's Bus) on Geneva: no child under 4, no infant seats, bring your own booster or they may deny boarding with no refund. Grenoble and Lyon: under-2 may sit on a lap on that operator's page; they still will not provide or accept an infant seat. These are operator pages, not a statute. Read the page for your airport.
Same sitting. Confirm the named product prints your child's birthday, then pay for beds and the care slot before you close the laptop. Booking beds first and "dealing with nursery later" is the freeze this page is for. We do not hold a sell-out rate.
We will not print that as a measurement. Val d’Isere OT says inscriptions in advance, places limited. Avoriaz prints about 20 places and "advance reservations indispensable." Les Arcs says book SkiMomes before you arrive. Montgenevre OT says reserve even outside school holidays. That is the hedge. Not a rate.
Usually no. In this cluster it is Piou-Piou / ski kindergarten from 3. Creche and halte-garderie are the under-3 words. Les Arcs SkiMomes starts at 3 years 3 months. Use the product decoder on ski-school-vs-kindergarten-vs-childcare.
Read that operator. Ben's Bus Geneva: no child under 4, no infant seats. Grenoble and Lyon: their page allows under-2 on a lap and still refuses infant seats. A private operator may offer seats if you request them at booking. France exempts taxi and public transport from the under-10 car-seat rule. Do not treat a private van as that exemption.
Austria: under 14 and under 135 cm needs a restraint (KFG 106, oesterreich.gv.at 12 Jan 2026). Switzerland: under 12 and under 150 cm in a car (ASTRA). Coaches from 4 may use existing belts on the ASTRA Merkblatt. Confirm the booking, not a blog.
That is a different page. The ranking twin is best-christmas-ski-resorts-families. This URL is the booking clock. Avoriaz is the car-free care example we link because the creche page is sourced and the village has no roads. If you already chose France, the named garderie table is best-french-alps-ski-resorts-families.
Open the named operator tonight. Ask for a remaining place. Mid-stay at Aiglons is only if a place remains. If the floor is 3 and your child is 2, you need a nanny, a down day, or a different product. The last-minute page is for products that still start, not for inventing a cot.
Transparency note: This content was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Tom Meredith, our editor. Prices, dates, and availability may change. We recommend confirming details directly with the resort before booking.