To expand on one of my earlier tips about traveling during the holidays, you should just expect bad weather during the holidays. You've heard of Murphy's Law; well it seems to have double application during the holiday season. So, the best way to handle it is to just expect that there will be weather delays and plan for them. That way you can be prepared to handle the delays with minimal stress when they come. And if for some reason you are able to avoid the delays, then you can enjoy the extra time you hadn't planned on having.
If you are travelling by air, you will want to buy your tickets way before any weather reports are available. Therefore, if you have to be wherever you are going by Day X, you should plan your itinerary so that you are there a day or two before Day X. That way, your vacation plans won't be "ruined" by the weather. Don't forget that the same applies for your return trip. Even if you are flying through airports where it doesn't snow, there is a very strong possibility that connecting flights coming from other areas of the country will be delayed. One Thanksgiving, we flew from Phoenix to L.A. to SLC before returning to Phoenix. On each leg of the trip we had a layover in Las Vegas. The weather was nice all weekend and it looked like we wouldn't have any trouble on our return flight. However, I remember spending most of the night in the Las Vegas airport because the plane that was supposed to take us to Phoenix was snowed in on the East coast. We arrived home at 6:00 am, and I had to be at work by 8:00 am. I don't think I was very effective at work that day.
When you are traveling by car, keep an eye on weather reports for the next several days. That way if the weather looks like it will be bad on the day you had planned to travel, you can adjust your plans to leave either a day earlier or a day later depending on your schedule. Even if it looks like you will have several days of bad weather in a row, you can leave a day early and make the trip over two days. I clearly remember a Christmas vacation when we were traveling to Utah. Since we saw that the weather would be bad the day we were supposed to travel, we left a day earlier. The storm came a little early and hit hard once we reached Cedar City. We slowed down drastically, but the snow was so heavy that they closed I-15. We had to pull of the interstate in Fillmore for the night. Since we didn't know anyone in Fillmore, and the hotel was full, we found an all-night restaurant where we planned to spend the night with several dozen other stranded travelers. Luckily, when we called my parents, they knew someone who lived there; so we got to camp out on their living room floor for the night. We weren't prepared for this possibility, but we got lucky. It would be wise to have a backup plan if you know that such a possibility exists. Fortunately, we were able to make the remainder of the trip once the roads were plowed the next morning.
Good luck traveling!
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