With Christmas and New Year’s Day coming mid week, it was hard to predict holiday ski traffic. And with New Year’s Day not an actual holiday for many, it should be a great day to ski for those who have it off. The first day of the year has always been quieter on the slopes for a couple of reasons.

With many celebrating into the wee hours and sleeping in the morning, lift lines are usually short. When others leave early to watch football, the entire day is a good one to ski. I’ll be out early Tuesday morning.

My only resolutions are to ski more than last year and to see how many of Maine’s ski areas I can get to. Not very specific but easily achieved, which is my kind of goal. One area I’m sure to get to during the next month is Shawnee Peak. It was 75 years ago this January in 1938 that Pleasant Mountain opened with rope tows. The big celebration day will be Saturday, Jan.12, with daylong festivities and a special dinner that night. Details are still being worked out but skiers will see the 75th birthday theme at the mountain throughout the season.

January is full of special events at Maine’s ski areas, and tomorrow night is the final day of December is always party night at a number of areas. Some are reservation-only events and others are open so if you plan on ringing in the new year at your favorite ski area. Check their website or call them for details.

For new and one-time skiers who want to return to the sport, January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard month with numerous programs to learn. The offers vary from one area to another so check with your area for details. I can’t vouch for snowboarding, but I do know that it has never been easier to learn to ski. Part of it is the quality of instruction which has improved greatly over the years and the rest is the equipment. Even advanced skiers are now on shorter skis and today’s rentals have the latest technology and almost turn themselves. If you or someone you know is interested in taking up the sport, January is the month.

A quick check of the calendar found an abundance of events and special deals. One of the first is Ski Free at Lost Valley with Emerson Toyota and LA Harley. Free skiing is always good. Saturday the 5th, Shawnee Peak provides the lift tickets for an outreach program to the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester, part of an effort to bring skiing to inner city kids. The next day donate blood at Shawnee Peak and receive a free lift ticket good for a day of skiing mid week. Sunday the 6th is also Maine day at Saddleback and the kick off of Sugarloaf’s College Snowfest — a weeklong promotion.

Sunday River’s College Snowfest runs the following week and their Red Cross blood drive will be the 8th. Jan. 12, Lost Valley will host the Otto Wallingford Memorial Race. It’s not just Lost Valley skiers who should memorialize the ski-area founder. Wallingford’s invention of the Powdermaker and other grooming and snowmaking innovations led the way for the equipment that produces the perfect surfaces we enjoy today.

The week of the 14th will be a busy one. Both Sunday River and Sugarloaf have their Children’s Festival week. Lost Valley hosts the Special Olympics the 18th and Saddleback’s Family Fun Day is the 19th.

Sugarloaf’s long running White White World week runs from the 20th to the 24th. Lost Valley hosts the J.P. Parisien Memorial Race Jan. 21. Sugarloaf will host the 44th Special Olympics Maine Winter Games Jan. 27-29, and Sunday River’s Go50 week runs from the 28th to the 31st. These are some of the highlights, details of which can be found on the various websites. The websites are also good sources of discount lift tickets and other deals. Buying tickets on-line can often save a few bucks and ski areas update their condition reports daily — especially when it’s snowing.

Our ski outing this week was a visit Wednesday (The day the sun was out) to Shawnee Peak. The new snow Christmas Day had been groomed into the man-made underneath giving us near perfect conditions. About lunchtime, we ran into Bruce Cole who has returned to his starting place after years of teaching skiing and coaching freestyle around the country. Bruce was the coach of the Pleasant Mountain freestylers that included Greg Stump in the 1970s. Now Shawnee Peak skiers can watch him carving turns and often throwing in Royal Christies as cruises down the mountain. He was quitting for the day so he would be ready to ski the fresh powder that dumped Thursday. I thought of him as I was keeping my driveway clear of that snow before turning to the computer to write this column. I knew that he and every hardcore skier living near their ski area would be out and thought of my patrol days when I never missed a snow day.

Later, sitting Blizzard’s Pub for lunch, I watched kids hitting jumps and other features in a terrain park. That park a miniature of what will be there when we get more snow sits at the bottom of the Main Slope, a place where years ago the ski patrol would have removed the lift tickets of anyone caught jumping. Kids always jumped. Now they’re in terrain parks away from other skiers and everyone is safer.

Happy New Year.

Dave Irons is a freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.